The LSE Directory / Charting platforms
Stocktwits is a social network and market-analytics platform built around the "cashtag," a dollar-sign-prefixed ticker (e.g. $AAPL) that groups public posts into a real-time discussion stream for that stock, ETF or crypto asset. On top of that stream it layers a bullish/bearish sentiment gauge per ticker, trending-stocks and unusual-activity lists, earnings calendars with live call streaming, watchlists, news aggregation, and a public API (open since 2012) that lets third parties pull cashtag message volume, sentiment and follower data. The product runs on web and iOS/Android apps. Within the charting and community-data category, Stocktwits differentiates on being ticker-native and sentiment-first rather than a general social feed: every post is organized by the instrument it discusses, and the aggregate tone of that activity becomes a first-party data product in its own right, licensed to institutional users such as Bloomberg and Google alongside the free retail-facing site. It monetizes retail users through paid tiers (an ad-free tier and a higher "Edge" tier adding expanded sentiment data, longer posts and research tools) while also selling the underlying sentiment and message data as an enterprise API, a dual consumer-plus-data-licensing model that sets it apart from purely charting-focused tools like TradingView and from unstructured forums like Reddit or X. Stocktwits was founded in 2008 by Howard Lindzon and Soren McBeth, growing out of a Lindzon blog post arguing that a Twitter-style stream would suit financial markets; it later became an independent platform rather than a Twitter add-on. Lindzon stepped back from the CEO role in 2016 to executive chairman and returned as CEO in 2024. The company raised a Series B of 30 million dollars in December 2021 at a 210 million dollar valuation, having raised 8.6 million dollars in venture funding as far back as 2013. It ran a zero-commission brokerage, TradeApp, through the FINRA-registered broker-dealer ST Invest LLC from 2019 until selling that business to Public.com in 2024, after which it refocused fully on the community and data product. It now reports over 10 million users across more than 200 countries. In July 2025 Stocktwits acquired Thematic, an AI-powered investment research startup, to apply AI models to its accumulated 17 years of community conversation and sentiment data; the deal underpins a set of AI research tools (AI-native search, smart screeners, stream summaries and a proprietary "Social RSI" sentiment indicator) the company said it would begin rolling out from Q4 2025.
