Note from the Publisher:  Omaha-based TD Ameritrade is one of the giants in online trading for consumers and wealth managers, and our family has long utilized the thinkorswim platform, even before its acquisition by TDA.  Social media tracking has been available for hedge funds and institutional traders through costly proprietary software for a while now, but thinkorswim is now availing it to the masses.  This will enable traders to follow social sentiment on a basket of 25 large caps including Apple, Nike, Microsoft, Alibaba, Yahoo, Starbucks, and more.  Brilliant move. 

"Ameritrade Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: AMTD), just launched a first-of-its-kind capability allowing investors to analyze social mentions of the brands that roll up to certain publicly traded companies. This new capability puts an array of consumer sentiment and brand enthusiasm in the hands of retail investors in the thinkorswim trading platform.

Tracking social media sentiment and volume of brand mentions may help investors discern trends, as well as offer potential clues into a company’s sales distribution. Wall Street analysts run channel checks for insights into sales heading into company earnings reports and same-store sales numbers. But what about Main Street? In an effort to level the playing field for retail investors, this new capability allows traders to view social data trends at the product level, review potential changes up to the past three years and visualize it in a chart showing the frequency of social posts."

Read Full Press Release at Business Wire