PSA: Brokers, Don't Pump Stocks on Twitter

It’s amazing that this needs to be repeated in 2011, but here goes…

BROKERS, DON’T PUMP STOCKS ON TWITTER.

Idiots, the internet is forever.  No different than the old message boards or email.  Same rules apply and nothing you delete is deleted.  And you’ll look like a dirtbag anyway.

Here’s DealBook on a broker who’s been suspended for sending “unbalanced” tweets about stocks she owned:

Wall Street’s self regulatory organization has suspended a California-based broker for sending a series of “misrepresentative and unbalanced” messages on the microblogging site Twitter. The Financial Regulatory Authority, or Finra, also fined the broker $10,000. Her suspension will last a year…

Finra sanctioned the California broker after she touted certain investments to her 1,400 Twitter followers without notifying her firm of the stock-picking “tweets.” Some of the “overly positive” messages predicted that stocks, including Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, would soon surge.

On Sept. 9, 2009, she tweeted, “Keep an i on AMD ppl! Just bike abve $5 = margins & institutionals can now ‘play ball!’ Barclay upgraded to $7 ystrdy, but it should be $10+”

A couple months later, she tweeted, “How accurate am I with AMD? Just check out my tweets! The future of AMD in 2010? Ummm..I would say $12 is conservative!”

By the way, what’s an “institutional”, lol.

We’re not here to debate how stupid the people acting on her tweets are, that’s a separate discussion.  If you go make investment decisions based on something you read on Twitter and do no further research, you’re a schmuck and we don’t feel bad for you.

But for Wall Street professionals taking advantage of social media, try to be smart about it so you don’t ruin it for everyone.

Source:

Tweets Land Broker in Trouble (DealBook)

$AMD