Death by Blogging?

I have to admit I did think of you when reading the article! One glass of red wine should protect most super-blogger's hearts, I say.

As in market data and trading, the answer is "it depends".  What it depends on is your objective.

i.e. If you are running a stat arb fund and creating alpha from short-lived market innefficiencies, then you will trade in and out of a position many times during a day, so milliseconds matter, and a market data system that is 100 milliseconds behind is a BAD thing.  But suppose you have a long-term strategy based on (for example) investing in companies that are undervalued, undercovered, but where the secular trends in their market favor them and they have good management.  You may accumulate a position over many months and hold it for a year or longer.  Then milliseconds don't matter.

So too with blogs or any news source.  What are you trying to achieve?

If I am trading on news, then seconds matter.  For example, if I know that Apple is going to miss their quarterly numbers by a lot, and I know that before the rest of the world does, then I can trade on that.

But if I am trying to understand the long-term impact of Google's Android on Apple's iPhone revenues, then I am happy to wait days or weeks for a well thought out analysis of the market for mobile platforms.

Interesting point about trading on information from online news or blogs. But I think that issue may move into the concept of machine-readable news which can be used with algorithimic trading systems.

Aren't blogs, by their nature, more analyical? Shound't there be a distinction between online news, real-time market data news and blogging? Or are the lines becomming blurred?

Thanks for your take on this. The article just fueled my dislike for the NYT.

To your question "What attracts you to news on a blog or on the web?" I would say this: The blogger's perspective. Personally, I don't care if the blogger publishes the "news" first or last. I care about what his/her take on the news is. 

Hi Liz

I have to say too many BLOGS are a waste of time with nothing really to say other than boost the ego of the BLOGGER. Quips are fine on occasions but the ammount of rubish posted against quality ideas or thoughts is just staggering. There should be more quality control on BLOGS by the publishers

Good question.

Most bloggers aren't really about 'new' news. Not with a new generation of hybrid online news sites/blogs (paidcontent, finextra) and more spontaneous services like Twitter for simply news breaking.

With blogs, for me, its always about the perspective of the individual and common interest areas, building trust in that person's analysis, viewpoint, style, sense of humour.

In essence a blog is a micro-branding exercise for that individual. Which - as Gary points out - is as often negative, as it is positive.

A few blogger figures:

• 53.7% are male
• 44.7% are married
• 28.4% hold a professional or managerial position
• 10.4% are students.