Just because you have a pulpit doesn’t mean you are qualified, or for that matter knowledgeable. With the advent of Stocktwits and twiter it is now so easy to plug your stock a caveman can do it. Well that may have been a bit corny but the facts still remain, everyone who has an opinion, no matter who, can share it. Now even the uneducated and ignorant can pass as brilliant. The best of us know that real decisions are calculated and precise and come from a variety of sources. The best trades are made when listening to those who may know more then you rather then those who speak the loudest. Taken at surface value this new voice of the masses can have more cons then pros, but if you break down others opinions, you can get the most out of the social media to boost your trading accounts.

One can see how someones articles or comments align with their holdings very easily, just look at my past articles. When I was very bearish on the market I was a huge supporter of the VIX; in more recent times I am very bullish on social media, just look at my chatter about RENN. What I strive to do when I post articles and opinions, is back this up with some facts. If I am not taking a look at the graphs, I am looking at the basics of the business. What many in the sphere of social media do is neither, and as someone like yourself, obviously trying to be a better trade, you must separate the crap from the knowledge.

My point is simple: consciously or subconsciously everyone in the social media finance world seeks to praise their own positions. Before you let yourself or any of your buddies go running in like a chicken with your head cut off, evaluate. Take a look at what this person has to say currently, see where their opinions come from, look at there past performance. Evaluate what they have to say, never, never, take things at face value. There is always more to the story, and it is your job as a trader to look deeper into that story, before realizing if what is being said should be relished or taken as chatter. More times then not traders are telling you to jump in head first, saying the pool is 10 feet deep and in fact its only 3.

If you have followed my tweets today, you have seen my obvious bullish sentiments of RENN. I hate to break it to those who read my post from yesterday about me preparing to fire my VXX bull gun, but I changed my mind. I pulled a complete reversal on sentiment. This is obvious by the massive amount of monies headed into social media. As I stated in an article a few weekends back, you Cant Fight Where The Money Is Going. Just take a look at the volume on RENN, its mind-blowing. Looking back to last summer, the last time enthusiasm was really behind this stock, it doubled in a week. Below is that graph.

There are many reasons I love Nike. From both a consumer side and an investor side. Yes some competition exist, but at the end of the day the company never fails to innovate. Below is a different take on advertising by Nike. It has over 1 million hits in 2 days. Watch and feel inspired.

As I mentioned last month, Caterpillar would be a pillar in which the bulls could stand upon. It just so happens that in the more recent times this pillar of strength has been sinking into the sand. I recall looking at CAT when it was priced at around $100 in mid January. Guess where it is today? My thought process for avoiding the purchase was that globally the economies were weak and the stock price of CAT would reflect this. Now we are four months into the bull market of 2012 and this CAT sits perched right where it started the year.

I have been bearish for quite sometime, so much so, it may have in fact caused me to miss the rally at the beginning of the year. Today I feel slighted for letting go of my VXX bull gun. I couldn’t take the pain anymore and capitulated quite some time ago. Looking back this may have been a foul move as the VXX looks to possibly make some real moves in the coming future. Before I put my bearish words to practice and buy back in, I will wait and see. This may seem a cop out to many of you, but less then a week ago we were in the driver seat of a crazy bull market, which was running over valuations and possibly could have steamrolled through weak earnings. With big earnings on the horizon and valuation up due to the recent stock rally, one must wait and see if the earning meet these inflated expectations. To jump in and out of the market as momentum swings one way or another is a fools errand, let the market settle out, and hopefully turn bearish to support my thesis.