Weekly Wrap Up: A Tweet to Yesterday affects Share Price of Today

On Thursday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted in remembrance of the (1973) Yom Kippur War, making reference to an Israeli air strike on Syria. Upon hearing this news, traders reacted and raced to buy more oil, the consequence of which was that the price of oil increased by $1 by barrel. This was despite the fact that the tweet mentioned “soviet weapons” and included the hashtag “#YomKippur73”…

Firstly, this shows how twitter content can be incredibly influential on our markets and economy. Secondly, it demonstrates that we no longer read the news. We scan it.

There is a proliferation of communication channels that we synthesize in order to form our opinions; a proliferation that has both positive and negative implications. On the positive side, it means we now have a broader view of what is going on around us on a minute by minute basis. However taking the cynical stand-point, this story also demonstrates the potential danger of these communication channels: in order to make our way through all of this information, we scan our news feeds and websites as opposed to reading them. Our brains tend to pick up on key words that trigger alarm bells, thus forcing us to act first and think second. So the traders on Thursday read the words Israel/ Syria/ Air strike, and reacted. Instantly.

There are two take home messages here: Firstly, whilst the content of our tweets is undoubtedly crucial, our choice of words and the structure is also important. Is there any way they may be misinterpreted if scanned at speed?

Secondly, and more importantly, we must remember who our twitter audience is and how important it is to communicate news via the platform. Twitter is no longer just the playground of the ex-facebook crowd; traders, analysts and other key influencers are also signing up and logging in.

We've all been mulling over how twitter may change post-IPO. The general consensus is that twitter will have less clutter and spam accounts after the float. Perhaps Thursday’s traders may give twitter a swerve for a week or two, but there is no doubt that the rest of the rest of us will carry on logging in…

This week Abchaps hosted a high-brow China market lunch, as well as attending the Temporis Capital Drinks reception, and a fascinating debate about Impact Investment at the Social Stock Exchange.

One of the highlights of the Alternative Investment Market’s calendar is the AIM-awards dinner that took place on Thursday. As well as being a guest of Meridian Equity Partners, we hosted a great table with guests from Cenkos, Sanlam, Naibu, CroweClarkWhitehill, Bird & Bird, SpAngel and Versarien. Congratulations to Allenby Capital who won Best Research Award.

This event certainly put us in a winning mood, which is appropriate considering that on Tuesday Abchurch was shorlisted for PR firm of the Year at the Quoted Company Awards. We are very much looking forward to the awards ceremony on the 29^th January 2014.

This week has seen a shake up to the big accounting and advisory practices: Grant Thornton appointed Usman Malik as director of mergers and acquisitions, Smith & Williamson appointmented John Rugman, previously of PwC, as head of valuations and finally Baker Tilly welcomed a selection of new partners to its London office - Andrew Conti, Chris Knowles, David Moran, Steve Jacob, and Mark Nisbett, congratulations!

Also on the move, Luke Whitmore of Baker & McKenzie has migrated to law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse where he is to be partner in its derivatives and structured finance division.

"Financial Shenanigans" - Acts or actions that mask or misrepresent the true financial performance of a company or entity.




Fresh from it's sold out run at Edinburgh Fringe, the hilarious Gothic comedy The Curse of Elizabeth Faulkner written by Tim Downie is on Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from now until the end of November at the Charing Cross Theatre.

This weekend mark’s the end of London Cocktail Week, so no better excuse for a tantalising tipple! Head out to celebrate our capital's unrivalled cocktail culture at one of the many pop-up bars, tastings, parties, master-classes or even go with one of London’s 150 pre-established cocktail venues. 

For some artistic culture, opening today is the exhibition “When Britain Went Pop - British Pop Art: The Early Years” at Christie’s new Mayfair gallery - displaying 140 rare pieces of work from the likes of Eduardo Paolozzi, Gerald Laing, Allen Jones and his First Step and Swingeing London to Richard Hamilton’s famous depiction of Mick Jagger. 

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