Beyond the Reddit of the Apes

Social media is more than bros pushing meme stocks. Smart, fresh voices are out there

- By Katie Greifeld

When you think of the places where Internet culture mashes up with finance, you might imagine Reddit boards where bro-ish posters who call themselves “apes” gang up to push shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. to the moon. Or YouTube personalities pumping crypto coins and get-rich-quick schemes. But there’s also a loose circle of posters on Twitter— affectionately known to its denizens as FinTwit—trading real ideas, along with plenty of jokes and esoteric memes, plus links to their Substack newsletters and TikTok skits.

FinTwit isn’t new, but it’s become required reading for anyone who wants to understand a market that’s increasingly influenced by what’s happening on social media. (That’s one reason many journalists, including this writer, spend perhaps a little too much time there.) Many of the posters work in finance, and it’s turning out to be a place where younger voices and women can build huge followings and further their careers.

Lily Francus, a former Ph.D. student turned quantitative researcher at Moody’s Analytics, joined Twitter in January to post intraday market predictions generated by her NOPE model. That stands for the Net Options Price Effect, and it tracks movements related to something called delta hedging. If that’s a head-scratcher to you, don’t worry—FinTwit can be a nerdy place.