Twitter Top 30 for Investor Relations

While there is growing evidence that investor relations teams are slowly moving away from using social media as we know it to reach investors, Twitter is increasingly used by fund managers, analysts, journalists and policymakers to communicate interesting ideas and comments, all of which it is well worthwhile staying on top of.

Last year, we published the first edition of our Twitter Top 30 for Investor Relations, and today we are glad to announce the 2016 update. We were particularly interested in adding to our list individuals who discuss current issues and trends relating to asset allocation, investment strategies and investor relations — especially those who encourage debate and a further exchange of ideas.

If you feel we have missed anyone, give us a shout on @closir. Many thanks to those who helped us to build this list during the last year. We hope you enjoy this year’s list.

Our 2016 Top 30:

@Schroders: Schroders maintains an active feed of insights on the global economy via links to their thought pieces, interviews with fund managers, polls and videos. The highlights here are posts with infographics, which portray an often complex story in easily digestible images. (Web)

@Enterprising : Enterprising Investor is CFA Institute’s own blog, delivering a solid analysis of current issues in finance and investing, including a wide variety of topics on portfolio management, corporate finance or behavioural economics. We particularly enjoy their coverage of the CFA Annual Conference (usually in April), where the blog does a great job of summarising messages from key speakers. Also worth adding are the CFA’s own accounts @CFAinstitute and @CFAemea. (Web)

@ftfm: FTFm is The Financial Times’s Monday weekly supplement focusing purely on news in fund management. Expect plenty of coverage on investment trends, regulation and other hot topics. Our favourite section is the one-on-one interviews with chief investment officers of global investment houses; their rundown of key executive appointments in the city is also very handy. (Web)

@IRMagazine: IR Magazine is probably the most comprehensive source of news relating to the investor relations industry. The magazine has gone through a few changes over the last year or so, with the addition of many more contributing editors, each offering a unique perspective on a vast array of topics relating to the day-to-day role of an investor relations officer. (Web)

@EastCapital: East Capital is a specialist emerging market investor from Stockholm, based on the ground in a number of markets. Expect dispatches and newsletters from portfolio managers and economists on the rapidly evolving situation in emerging and frontier markets. East Capital’s blog, Look East, is also known for documenting various trip reports written by portfolio managers during their travels. (Web)

@johnauthers: John Authers is one of our favourite financial market commentators. Most interesting and perhaps relevant to us are his ‘big picture’ insights on the fund management industry (especially around regulation, active vs. passive and fees for example) as well as ongoing discussions around drivers of change. We also enjoy the short 2–3 minute video summaries that he sometimes records alongside the posts. His colleagues Steve Folley (@stephenfoley), Martin Wolf (@martinwolf_) and Gideon Rachman (@gideonrachman) complete an impressive FT line-up. (Web)

@TheEconomist: Buttonwood’s Notebook is The Economist’s own section on financial markets. And in case you were wondering, it is named after the Buttonwood Agreement of 1792 which gave birth to the modern day New York Stock Exchange, signed under a buttonwood tree. Perhaps uniquely the column often reviews and comments on academic research affecting the fund management industry. (Web)

@MarkMobius: Mark Mobius is an emerging market fund manager at Franklin Templeton, and is perhaps one of the most prominent figures in our industry. In his ‘Investment Adventures in Emerging Markets’ blog he provides a factual and candid analysis of EMs, as well trip reports for various markets. His most recent updates include trip reports are dispatched from Sri Lanka, Iran and China. (Web)

@EM_Comms — EM is a Moscow, London and Hong Kong based financial PR and IR agency covering emerging markets, IR/PR spaces and the influential role digital technologies can play. The recently launched Moscow AM daily email provides a unique take (in English) on key developments in the country.

@danielgodfrey_ — Daniel Godfrey is the recently departed chief of the UK’s Investment Association (@InvAssoc) which represents the the views of some 200 investment managers who manage over £5.5 trillion. Expect highly relevant views on the investment management industry, especially in the UK.

Investor Relations Societies around the world provide a highly useful stream of news, developments, and trends in the world of investor relations. We particularly enjoy the updates from the UK IR Society @IRSocietyUK, the Middle East IR Society (@meirsociety), as well as the New York chapter of NIRI in the US (@niri_ny).

@Jerome_Booth — You may know Jerome Booth as the Head of Research for Emerging Markets at Ashmore Group. He has since moved on to set up a new investment vehicle called New Sparta Limited, wrote a book titled, Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World and continues to write highly relevant commentary on emerging markets and their role in the global economy. (Web)

@TToomseSmith — Thomas Toomse-Smith works with the UK’s Financial Reporting Council @FRCnews, the UK independent regulator responsible for promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting to encourage greater investment. He is particularly interested in the future of electronic reporting and publishes a number of interesting surveys and opinions throughout the year. (Web)

@dr_holtmann -Dr Kai Holtmann carries a wealth of industry knowledge and his handle covers capital markets related business/economic/social issues with a particular focus on corporate governance and ESG.

@HarvardCorpGov — This Harvard Law School forum provides extensive research on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, including updates on their working papers, seminars, speakers, and other activities. Highly captivating isights with increasing relevance to the investor relations profession. (Web)

@CopleyFR — Follow Steven Holden for highly interesting pieces about investment flows to/from emerging markets. He backs his research with a large number of data points and provides meaningful context that explain the numbers.

@jpmorganfunds — JP Morgan Asset Management’s handle provides a large amount of context to the current global investment environment. The most interesting pieces are the weekly market commentary as well as their highly quantitative quarterly guide to markets. In terms of other fund managers we recommend adding feeds from Neuberger Berman (@neubergerberman), Investec AM (@investecam_uk), State Street (@StateStreet) and Barings (@Barings).

@tombuerkle — Tom Buerkle is the International Editor at Institutional Investor magazine group (@iimag) who writes about global developments that particularly affecting professional investors, with the occasional weather update! (Web)

@ForeignAffairs — With today’s geopolitical climate occupying the minds of many portfolio managers of global active funds, and especially so the ones focusing on emerging markets, we find Foreign Affairs Magazine’s coverage of events extremely informative. Their most recent pieces take an in-depth look into conflicts in the Middle East, the relationship between Russia and China as well as Brazil’s place in the emerging market export club. (Web)

@Joe_Mcalinden — Joe Mcalinden is former CIO at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, providing interesting macro comments and updates with a particular focus on the US. He also frequently touches on the Federal Reserve’s actions and policies, and their impact on global equity markets.

@profaminrajan — Professor Amin Rajan is the founder of CREATE Research, a London-based Asset Management Think Tank. He publishes a variety of thought papers on the state of the AM industry and identifies key forces that will shape it in the future. (Web)

@annairrera — Our Top 30 list would not be complete for us without a financial technology flavour. Anna Irrera covers trading and tech reporting at Financial News, offering insights on a wide variety of topics ranging from blockchain to robo advisors to trading technology, and much more.