Financial Twitter is a hub of some of the best experts, minds, thought leaders, and influencers in the field. Not only that, Twitter has become a powerful tool for tracking markets, finding talent, networking, and giving back. And those are all things we want to support at ETF trends.
We decided to look for different ways to support the FinTwit community — an initiative we’re calling #ETFintwit. And we’re kicking off that support off with our list of 50 top Twitter accounts.
To select this list, we looked for influential members of the FinTwit community. We stuck with Twitter’s “blue check” rules in that we only considered accounts with more than 1,000 followers. But we didn’t just pick the accounts with the most followers.
Instead, we also looked for people who exemplified FinTwit and used it meaningfully — to help them do their job, spread ideas, and build a community. We paid particular attention to people who use Twitter to lift others up and give back.
And finally, we didn’t just want to name people who work in our corner of finance. This isn’t an ETF-specific list. You’ll find names from across the financial sector: ETFs, asset managers, personal finance, advisors, ESG, and more. Think of it like an index fund of FinTwit.
Christine Benz
@christine_benz
Director of Personal Finance & Retirement Planning
Morningstar
A #FinTwit account so good even KISS took notice.
Career background: I contribute to Morningstar’s research on financial planning, portfolio construction, and retirement planning matters. I also write articles and shoot videos for Morningstar.com, and co-host a weekly podcast with Jeff Ptak called “The Long View.”
#FinTwit story: One Friday night before a MoneyShow conference, I tweeted, “I can’t believe I’m going to be sharing a stage with Gene Simmons at an investment conference,” followed by the devil horns hand emoji. (He was speaking at the same conference about a business venture he was involved in.) Gene Simmons promptly tweeted, “I can’t believe I’m going to be sharing a stage with Christine Benz at an investment conference.” That immediately prompted a flood of likes and comments from his legions of fans. I remember Morgan Housel tweeted “Oh my God.” I queued up to meet Gene at the conference, but the line was too long and his handlers rushed him away.
Favorite ETF, stock, coin, or hashtag: Vanguard Total World Market Index $VTI. I believe we should all try to keep things simple.
Kian Salehizadeh
@slhzdh
AVP, Finance
LPL
Kian is famous for his 280 character profiles spotlighting smart FinTwitters. In 2020 he called on that community to help him get past 4,000 followers, and donated $4,000 to charities when it happened.
Career background: I’m an industry lifer with 17 years of experience across the asset management, investment advisory, broker/dealer, and ETF/index spaces
#FinTwit story: I’ve been on Twitter for 14 years, so my time on the platform goes way back. I really didn’t delve into the #FinTwit world until my previous role in the ETF/index space. I started out utilizing the platform for networking, and since then, I’ve met lots of amazing people, many of whom have become friends outside of Twitter. I also run a weekly series under the #FinTwitIn280 hashtag, where I profile a different member of the community every Monday.
Favorite ETF, stock, coin, or hashtag: #FinTwitIn280
Michael Antonelli @bullandbaird Market Strategist Baird Fintwit’s resident optimist. Which is important when you’re a Chicago sports fan in Wisconsin. Career background: Graduated from the University of Chicago MBA program in 2007, started my career at Baird as an Institutional Equity trader. Transitioned to a Market Strategist role in Private Wealth Management where I produce content for our clients and advisors focusing on the behavioral side of investing (in person, written, video, audio). My secret sauce has always been explaining complex topics in unique ways (such as storytelling or using pop culture references), I refer to it as “edutainment”. I have a blog at www.bullandbaird.com with over 4,500 subscribers. #FinTwit story: I stumbled into Fintwit around 2013 and really had no idea where I fit in. Over time I realized that the best way to grow professionally was to listen (and follow) people who were authentically trying to help. There are accounts who spend a lot of time debunking myths, or guiding readers towards interesting content, or writing about finance in an easy-to-understand way and that’s where you want to focus. 2020 was a prime example of what I’m talking about: we all knew times […]
Protected by Patchstack