How To Make Financial Content

Everyone’s writing something in the financial media these days but some of you people need a refresher on the basics of composition.  Depending on for whom or what you are writing, this should be the only guide you need to get it right:

How to write a stock article for CNNMoney or MarketWatch: Line up quotes from a bull and a bear on a given stock – give a paragraph to each to state their case on the company, conclude by saying it’s too early to tell who’s right.

How to write a column in Barron’s: Take a random statistic from Bespoke Investment Group.  Use it to tell a story.  Nap the rest of the week until deadline.  Wake up and repeat.

How to write a book on investing: Grab your favorite rules and ideas from a few of the other 20,000 books on investing that came before yours.  No one will notice and the rules are evergreen anyway so they probably should be repeated.  Have your PR agent send me an email about your book twice a day until they get the auto-responder announcing my premature and tragic death.

How to write for Motley Fool: For your subject, pick a stock with a high message board-to-headline ratio on Yahoo Finance (thus guaranteeing interest and clicks).  Promote the CAPS community within the first paragraph, the last paragraph should essentially be an ad for Hidden Gems or Rule Breakers of some such newsletter product.

How to write for TheStreet.com: Be Doug Kass.

How to write for the Forbes or HuffPo network:  Doesn’t matter, it’ll be buried amid seven million other pieces of content, no one will read it.

How to write for Dealbreaker: Find paragraph about Wall Street that also includes some reference to sexuality, deviant or otherwise.  Cut and paste said paragraph.  Add dead-serious image of person mentioned as mocking tribute to the public image they worked so hard to manufacture all these years.  Let anonymous commenters run wild in the section below.

How to write a trader blog post: Upload several charts from stockcharts.com with lines and drawings on them, introduce them all with one paragraph of text.  Turn spellchecker off ensuring at least one error, be sure to mix up “then” and “than” or “there” and “their” at least once.  Headline must include three ticker symbols.

How to write an economics blog post: FRED charts from the St. Louis Fed are essential.  Reference “my students” so we are all reminded that you are a professor – not just some f*cking guy.  Be careful about drawing any conclusions without also telling us about “on the other hand.”  Call someone an idiot, bonus points if it’s another economist with different political leanings than yours.

How to write a Zero Hedge post: Obscure Bloomberg-generated chart + Goldman Sachs FX research item.  Connect the dots into something completely implausible.

How to write an investment newsletter: Emphasize everything that can go wrong.  Relate to your audience – elderly men who are being passed by in this world and need the reassurance that the world is going down the tubes, rather than evolving without them.  Gold mustn’t necessarily be the subject of each letter but it should at least be alluded to or serve as the unwritten subtext.

How to write a Reformed Broker post: Include at least one rap reference – you know, for the kids.  Throw a family-friendly asterisk into an F-bomb like so: F*ck.  Then, inexplicably, spell out the next F-bomb completely.  And if too busy, throw up a random infographic – TRB has been coasting on fumes since late 2010 anyway.

How to write for Calculated Risk: Post chart or series of charts.  Say as little as possible, let the data do the talking for you.  Wonder why rest of blogosphere hasn’t yet caught on to this formula, quite possibly the purest form of financial journalism extant.

How to write for the Business Insider:  Post title should ask a question you have no intention or ability to answer.  Bonus points for making it into a list, for including a well-known person and for scaring people into clicking it.  Example: “ARE THESE THE SEVEN REASONS DANNY DEVITO IS ABOUT TO MAKE THE ECONOMY IMPLODE?”

How to write a segment of financial television: Look at the day’s trading activity in shares of Apple.  Look at recent headlines for Apple.  Use  headlines to explain the day’s trading activity in Apple – you know, for people without the internet or cellphones.  Also, segment names should always rhyme, people love that sh*t.

How to write for the Wall Street Journal, NYT DealBook or the FT: Put up an article behind the paywall.  Then summarize the most important two paragraphs of said article in a blog post outside the paywall.  Repeat until paywall idea is abandoned or newspaper is sold.

Hope this was helpful 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

This content, which contains security-related opinions and/or information, is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon in any manner as professional advice, or an endorsement of any practices, products or services. There can be no guarantees or assurances that the views expressed here will be applicable for any particular facts or circumstances, and should not be relied upon in any manner. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment.

The commentary in this “post” (including any related blog, podcasts, videos, and social media) reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of the Ritholtz Wealth Management employees providing such comments, and should not be regarded the views of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. or its respective affiliates or as a description of advisory services provided by Ritholtz Wealth Management or performance returns of any Ritholtz Wealth Management Investments client.

References to any securities or digital assets, or performance data, are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.

Wealthcast Media, an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management, receives payment from various entities for advertisements in affiliated podcasts, blogs and emails. Inclusion of such advertisements does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by the Content Creator or by Ritholtz Wealth Management or any of its employees. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. For additional advertisement disclaimers see here: https://www.ritholtzwealth.com/advertising-disclaimers

Please see disclosures here.

What's been said:

Discussions found on the web
  1. دوربین دنده عقب commented on Sep 29

    دوربین دنده عقب

    Does your site have a make contact with webpage? I’m obtaining a challenging time locating it but, I’d like to shoot you an e-mail. I’ve received some imaginative concepts for your site you may possibly be fascinated in listening to. Possibly way, grea…

  2. دوربین مدار بسته آنالوگ commented on Sep 30

    دوربین مداربسته آنالوگ

    Appreciating the time and energy you place into your website and thorough info you offer. It is excellent to arrive throughout a site every single as soon as in a while that isn’t the very same undesired rehashed information. Wonderful read! I’ve saved…

  3. دوربین مدار بسته هایک ویژن commented on Sep 30

    دوربین مدار بسته هایک ویژن

    Hey, I think your site may well be possessing browser compatibility issues. When I appear at your site in Chrome, it seems to be fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a swift heads up! Other then…

  4. فروش دوربین مدار بسته commented on Oct 01

    فروش دوربین های مدار بسته

    I do not know if it is just me or if probably everybody else encountering difficulties with your internet site. It seems as if some of the prepared text in your posts are managing off the display. Can any individual else make sure you remark and permit…

  5. استخدام شرکت دوربین مداربسته commented on Oct 01

    استخدام شرکت دوربین مداربسته

    Hi there there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Lookup Motor Optimization? I’m striving to get my weblog to rank for some qualified search phrases but I’m not viewing very excellent final results. If you know of any you should share…

  6. دوربین مدار بسته هایک ویژن commented on Oct 01

    دوربین مدار بسته هایک ویژن

    Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to support with Seo? I’m attempting to get my weblog to rank for some targeted key phrases but I’m not observing very very good gains. If you know of any you should share. Numerous thanks!

  7. Pocket Pussy Reviews commented on Oct 03

    Pocket Pussy Reviews

    […]that may be the finish of this report. Right here you will come across some web sites that we consider you will value, just click the hyperlinks over[…]

  8. dual stimulators commented on Oct 03

    dual stimulators

    […]below you’ll obtain the link to some websites that we think you must visit[…]

  9. masturbation commented on Oct 03

    masturbation

    […]always a massive fan of linking to bloggers that I enjoy but don’t get lots of link appreciate from[…]

  10. Penis Pump commented on Oct 04

    Penis Pump

    […]Here is a good Blog You might Find Fascinating that we Encourage You[…]

  11. Masturbators for Men commented on Oct 04

    Masturbators for Men

    […]we came across a cool web page that you just might enjoy. Take a look in case you want[…]

  12. Adamandeve commented on Oct 04

    Adamandeve

    […]Every the moment in a even though we select blogs that we read. Listed below would be the most recent websites that we select […]

  13. diy commented on Oct 05

    diy

    […]Every as soon as inside a even though we choose blogs that we study. Listed beneath would be the most up-to-date web pages that we pick out […]

  14. sextoysratings.com commented on Oct 05

    sextoysratings.com

    […]Sites of interest we have a link to[…]

  15. Adamandeve.com commented on Oct 05

    Adamandeve.com

    […]Here is a good Weblog You may Obtain Intriguing that we Encourage You[…]