Chart Of The Day: Twitter's Ban On Trump Looks 'Net Positive' For Investors

 | Jan 12, 2021 14:40

In 2016, Donald Trump single-handedly created a new fundamental driver for financial markets—his Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) messages. Some fund managers, even those with respected reputations, openly said that all one needs to do in order to trade effectively is read Trump's tweets.

Bloomberg even enabled its terminal to provide compilations of data and charts plotting and evaluating how Trump’s tweets affected the market.

President Trump using his Twitter account to deliver his opinions, policy positions and even hiring and firing updates to his more than 88 million followers, generated enormous publicity for the social media platform, not to mention substantial user growth. So it wasn't much of a surprise when Twitter lost $5 billion in market value on Monday, after it permanently suspended the president from its platform after markets closed on Friday, for inciting last week's US Capitol violence as well potentially fomenting future mob attacks. 

On Monday, shares of Twitter closed down more than 6%. Is this just the start of a deep dive for the stock? Maybe not.

Mark Shmulik, internet analyst for AllianceBernstein says the selloff "feels like a bit of overreaction.” Right now, he notes, “most advertisers won’t touch anything Trump related.” In other words, the current selloff might be short-term pain for longer-term gain.

Moreover, adds Shmulik, though Trump increased platform traffic ad views, his removal ensures he'll no longer dominate the conversation. Plus, advertisers will likely feel better about Twitter being a safer place for their brand. Shumulik considers it “net positive to the company.” 

Whatever your views on the current president and Twitter’s decision, charts are indicating this selloff is nothing more than a glorified correction within an uptrend.