• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

2

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'

3

Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026

1

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

2

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'

3

Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
Finance

Donald Trump’s Tweets Don’t Add Up for Wall Street’s Smartest Traders

By
Reuters
Reuters
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Reuters
Reuters
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 30, 2017, 4:05 PM ET
Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Appears With His Vice Presidential Candidate Pick Indiana Gov. Mike Pence
NEW YORK, NY - JULY 16: Newly selected vice presidential running mate Mike Pence, governor of Indiana, stands onstage with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and the Trump family at the end of an event at the Hilton Midtown Hotel, July 16, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, Trump announced on Twitter that he chose Pence to be his running mate. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)Photo by Drew Angerer — Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Day traders love making bets on tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump, but some of the most prominent quantitative strategists from hedge funds and banks are not quite ready to make big, bold trades on his social media musings.

The president’s active Twitter presence has lifted volatility in financial markets, which is good for day traders who capitalize on price fluctuations in highly liquid markets. Such traders, who have a short-term horizon, have struggled the last few years as market moves have become steadier and more predictable amid a low interest-rate environment.

“Trump’s tweets are a good opportunity for a short-term discretionary trader,” said Patrik Safvenblad, a partner at the $1.7 billion systematic macro hedge fund Harmonic Capital Partners in London. But he said it is not the right strategy for his firm since quantitative managers need data going back at least five to 10 years to establish a pattern.

Quants track patterns or trends in trading behavior and asset prices and create formulas to predict future market movements. These are entered into powerful computers that buy and sell automatically based on signals generated by algorithms.

For these gifted bunch of mathematicians, Trump’s tweets are way too sporadic to serve as a meaningful trading strategy.

“Trump’s tweets are episodic,” said Joseph Mezrich, head of equities quantitative strategies at Nomura in New York. “The way I look at data is that I have to look at what happens with sufficient sample. You have one or two events on Twitter … and it doesn’t provide much reliability.”

First Quadrant, another asset manager that uses computer models to crunch data with about $22 billion in assets, does not look at Trump’s tweets for investment opportunities.

“As a fundamental manager, we are really looking for just that: fundamental change,” said Jeppe Ladekarl, a partner at First Quadrant in Pasadena, California.

Algorithmic trading makes up about 55% of U.S. equity trading volume, according to the latest research from Greenwich Associates. In the global currency market, that figure rises to 65-70 percent, according to research from Aite group.

The quants’ lukewarm response to Trump’s tweets should ordinarily keep volatility under control. But given the many policy unknowns under the new administration, there should be continued price swings in the market, analysts say.

Richard Benson, co-head of portfolio management at currency management firm Millennium Global in London, thinks Trump’s Twitter feed has created more noise than meaningful volatility.

Often times, the noise in the data drowns out the trading signals, resulting in uncertain outcomes, analysts say.

At best, Trump’s tweets can create short-term sentiment signals about specific companies which can be useful in the equity space, Benson said. “But the tweet is still subject to interpretation,” and he is not sure it can actually predict anything.

Millennium manages about $16 billion in assets and has one systematic fund, which Benson said has no plan to use Trump’s tweets.

Retail Trading Volume Spike

It is a different story in the day trading world where Trump’s tweets have delivered a spike in volume for some of the online retail brokers.

Robinhood, a commission-free trading app for retail investors, has experienced surges in volume based on Trump’s Twitter activity, the company’s spokesman said.

Transaction volumes on Robinhood hit record-breaking levels of more than $1 billion in the week following Trump’s victory. The trading app, which has 1 million users, is backed by leading venture capital firms Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz as well as U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg and actor Jared Leto.

Volume also increased in November at FXCM, one of the leading U.S. retail currency brokers, due partly to the U.S. presidential election, said company spokeswoman Jaclyn Sales. Trump’s disparaging comments on Mexico and China on Twitter have boosted the dollar’s trading volume the last two months based on FXCM’s real-time volume indicator.

At U.S. broker TD Ameritrade Holdings Corp, fiscal first-quarter average daily trading volume rose 11 percent from a year earlier, the company said on its website, attributing part of that increase to Trump.

During an earnings call about the quarter ended Dec. 31, Ameritrade Chief Executive Officer Tim Hockey said Trump’s social media activity could continue to drive trading volume.

“Every day we wake up hoping Trump will tweet something,” Hockey told CNBC a few weeks ago.

New Opportunities

Trump’s fondness for tweeting brings business opportunities for technology vendors, some of whom have developed models to help companies profit from the U.S. president’s Twitter comments.

New York-based startup Trigger, for instance, which notifies retail investors about social media comments, has created an alert called “trigger,” that tips off investors when Trump tweets about a listed company.

Rachel Mayer, Trigger’s chief executive, said the “Trump Trigger” has become by far the most popular alert on the platform, with subscriptions from around one-third of its total users.

“I don’t see these (Trump’s tweets) stopping,” said Mayer.

About the Author
By Reuters
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

Tom and Diane Peterman pose outside their home at Black Lake on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Grant Township, Mich.
EnvironmentNatural disasters
FEMA told these families they weren’t in a flood zone. Then ice came through the windows
By Tammy Webber, M.K. Wildeman and The Associated PressJune 23, 2026
2 hours ago
Quantum computing stocks surge after Trump signed executive orders backing the sector
Investingquantum computing
Quantum computing stocks surge after Trump signed executive orders backing the sector
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 23, 2026
2 hours ago
Alan Greenspan testifying before the Senate Banking Committee.
BankingFederal Reserve
The man who invented the Fed’s magic trick just died. His successor is about to try it again
By Eva RoytburgJune 23, 2026
4 hours ago
data
EnergyData centers
AI’s power hunger is turning electric utilities into Wall Street growth stocks — and customers may pay the price
By Conor Harrison and The ConversationJune 23, 2026
5 hours ago
k
PoliticsElections
Coming to an election near you: prediction markets
By Matt Motta, Robert Ralston and The ConversationJune 23, 2026
5 hours ago
Woman hides from the sun in front of Big Ben in London
EconomyEurope
‘London isn’t just calling—it’s cooking.’ Europe’s largest economies face over $600 billion in heat-driven losses by 2030
By Tristan BoveJune 23, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Banking
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
By Jim EdwardsJune 23, 2026
12 hours ago
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 22, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 22, 2026
1 day ago
By 7 a.m., Bank of America’s CEO has already read 5 newspapers, his email inbox, and hit the gym—he says if you’re late to meetings, you’re ‘selfish’
Success
By 7 a.m., Bank of America’s CEO has already read 5 newspapers, his email inbox, and hit the gym—he says if you’re late to meetings, you’re ‘selfish’
By Preston ForeJune 22, 2026
1 day ago
The Fed is fed up with inflation and will bring down the hammer with a series of rate hikes this year, reversing earlier cuts, BofA says
Economy
The Fed is fed up with inflation and will bring down the hammer with a series of rate hikes this year, reversing earlier cuts, BofA says
By Jason MaJune 22, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.