Humans vs computers – latest: “Algorithms struggle to understand sarcasm, emoticons & profanity in tweets”

Philip Stafford:

For many traders and investors, using Twitter has become as much a daily part of their routine as watching a Bloomberg terminal or Reuters screen.

Although some banks ban access to the social media site, many financial professionals rely on it for everything from inside jokes and sarcasm to breaking news and distribution of serious research.

Discussions around particular Russell 1000 securities on Twitter have grown from several hundred thousand messages per quarter in 2011 to several million in early 2014, according to Gnip, a US company that provides social media data to hedge funds. It was bought by Twitter last year.