Tag Archives: social trading

As I explained in my earlier article, social investing is not a totally new idea as seeking for help, advice, and tips have been part of investing as long as people could invest money. The ongoing trend of democratizing investing and banking for the masses is closely tied to the rise of fintechs (e.g., robo-advisory), newly emerged business models, the ever-wider distribution of new financial products, and the trust gap created by the recent global financial crisis. Also, as Dan Schutzer highlights, there are new ways to effectively fund new ventures, incumbents are still struggling with various environmental changes and credit is tight, technology-assisted solutions are everywhere, and our means utilizing and accessing information are changing. Social trading and social investing represent the new trend of technology-assisted, socially-driven, and DIY models of investing. We also have some concrete evidence on the effects of social media on retail and institutional investor behavior and trading activity as well as…

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Social investing and various kinds of social investment communities are not entirely new things. Sharing insights and opinions on different investments, investment philosophies, investment strategies, and financial markets, in general, has been part of our lives for years. Investors, as well as any other kind of communities of interest, have been utilizing mailing lists, discussion forums, and online chats as long as they have been in existence. Even today, beginners and experienced investors rely on each other’s opinions and viewpoints when setting up their investment targets, strategies and picking up particular financial instruments when executing specific investment strategies. 1)“Social investing/trading” should not be confused with “socially responsible investing/investment” as they are very different things. In Finland and Sweden, for example, we have witnessed the emergence of very lively and dynamic financial blogosphere in relatively short timespan. Numerous of books, articles, conferences, podcasts, blogs, and people offer diverse opinions on investing…

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Chatbots are gaining some momentum in the financial services industry in Finland. OP Financial Group has been at the forefront of launching a relatively large amount of experiments. Other Finnish banks and financial institutions have been rather passive but at the moment OP Financial Group is setting the bar quite high. Kotipizza’s collaboration with OP Financial Group is an example of a transactional chatbot for ordering food (simply order through Facebook Messenger and pay with Pivo app), last year OP’s Pivo Penni (a chatbot for students) turned out to be a short-lived test, and in addition OP launched an invite-only financial management chatbot Pivo Alfred (spending analysis) last December. Unfortunately, there has been no further news about S-Bank’s collaborative chatbot project since last year. In the US, many banks and other financial institutions have already deployed chatbots. As many commentators have already pointed out previously, there are various forms of chatbots ranging from customer service,…

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