Twitter the New Discount Brokerage?

Scanning the Financial Post as I do most days, I came across this article published last Saturday, February 21, 2009 titled Twitter new source for stock tips, headaches for regulators: http://www.financialpost.com/news/story.html?id=1313295

For those of you who are not familiar with this tool, "Twitter a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?" (twitter.com) Essentially, Twitter is a microblog allowing users to "tweet" up to 140 characters to friends, followers, etc... informing them about their daily events. 

The phenomenon of Twitter is giving rise to users providing services such as stock information. For example, services such as Piqqem and Stocktwits are offering investment expertise to all investors from basic knowledge to sophisticated investors. As investors continue to sit in limbo with their current advisors and portfolio options, more and more of them are turning to unconventional sources to gain information. To emotionally distressed investors, Twitter's ability to provide this information at no-charge comes as a godsend. Twitter is serving as a free means for investors to access advice for equities. 

However, securities regulators believe that there is cause for concern as Andy Poon, spokesman for the British Columbia Securities Commission explains (Financial post,2009) 

Twitter, which encourages users to attach themselves to others and follow their communication with a network of other users, could probe to be a useful tool for investors - or it could be the next new shiny penny [that] enables some of the bad guys to reach a lot more people a lot more quickly and at a lower cost. 

The anonymity of Twitter's users could prove to be a safe haven for 'pump and dump' stock promoters and other scams (Financial post,2009). But  with over 15,000 users using Stocktwits providing more than 3,000 unique tweets/day, Twitter could also prove to be a saviour to investors amidst the present market turmoil.