A tweet from Elon Musk is enough to make stock prices shoot up or down . He’s not the only Twitter user with such power over the stock market. These tweets caused significant losses.

“I kinda love Etsy”: Much more, someone like Elon Musk doesn’t have to tweet to get the stock market moving . The Etsy share has meanwhile given Musk a double-digit increase. In a financial world that is spinning ever faster, social media posts that are unceremoniously released are often the trigger for profits – or even losses. How fast it can go is shown by the recent hoax about the death of Elon Musk. This means that the Tesla boss has once again become the focus of twitter-related price fluctuations, albeit this time unintentionally. Another example on a growing list.

Did Kylie Jenner shoot Snapchat?

Over 200 million followers on Instagram and 38 million on Twitter: What influencer Kylie Jenner posts reaches more people worldwide than the public statements made by most politicians. You can easily imagine the reactions it triggered in the Snapchat headquarters when Jenner asked in a tweet whether anyone would still use Snapchat at all.

sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.

– Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018

When Jenner decided to send another tweet with the message that she actually still thinks Snapchat is good, it was too late . $ 1.7 billion late to be exact. Although it later became apparent that there were enough other reasons for the Snapchat share crashing and that the number of users had not changed significantly after the tweet, a debate about the great influence of celebrities on the stock market was initiated.

When Donald Trump was still tweeting

Donald Trump and Twitter: That was a love affair that ended in disaster. On the way there, Trump also repeatedly influenced the world’s stock exchanges with his short messages. After Trump temporarily ended the negotiations for further corona aid with a (no longer available) tweet, Dow Jones and Nasdaq reacted immediately.

The Dow after the President’s tweet saying no COVID relief talks until after the election pic. twitter.com/Ypnzyc52Vs

– Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) October 6, 2020

For the purposes of classification, however, it must be noted that a press release by the President in the traditional way would have produced a similar reaction with a high degree of probability. Trump’s Twitter channel also had a major impact on the stock market, regardless of whether his team’s messages were believed or not. For example, his son Erik Trump tweeted in 2020 what a great time it was to buy stocks only to delete the tweet some time later. Because if his tweet should have had an impact on the markets, it would be a significantly negative one.

Hillary Clinton v. The pharmaceutical industry

Even the Democrats have long been using Twitter as an instrument for political announcements of great significance. Hillary Clinton announces on the platform, for example, that she wants to take action against overpriced drug prices.

Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I’ll lay out a plan to take it on. -H https://t.co/9Z0Aw7aI6h

– Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 21, 2015

Although nothing was fired at at this point, Clinton’s plan wasn’t even in place, the biggest losers on the Nasdaq the next day were all Biotech companies that could have been affected by possible policy measures.

Tweets with signal effect

Of course, tweets can also have a very positive influence on share prices. However, this upswing can be short-lived if it turns out that a completely different company was actually meant in the corresponding tweet. This happened in January of this year, when investors sent the fake Signal stock soaring. Elon Musk is a real influencer for share prices – if you follow his recommendations, you should make sure to read his tips correctly.

Fake news as a danger to investors

Barack Obama was in an explosion hurt in the white house? This hoax upset the world in 2013. Although the report turned out to be a fake by hackers within a very short time, the share prices plummeted anyway. American stocks briefly lost 136.5 billion euros in value. The courses then recovered; however, the example shows how quickly the markets react to tweets and other social media posts. Hacking official channels and sending false reports can also be an instrument for deliberately triggering desired price movements in order to damage companies or to earn money directly from them. A similar theory is currently in the room with the false report about Elon Musk.

“Send me your bitcoins! Best regards, Elon Musk “

In general, hacks and fake news are meanwhile not to be underestimated in the financial market Role. One of the biggest cases occurred in July 2020 when fraudulent tweets were posted on the Twitter accounts of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and other big business figures. Twitter followers were asked to transfer bitcoins to the criminals’ accounts. Even if this approach was not much more difficult to expose as a fraud than a phishing email with the subject “Please send me your Bitcoins!” And the sender “Elon Musk”, the economic damage was not insignificant.

Twitter remains an important source of information for shareholders

Despite the dangers of hacks, false reports and rash reactions, Twitter is an extremely important source of information for investors of all sizes. Today’s short messages may determine tomorrow’s rates, whether they are correct or not.

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