What are Twitter cashtags? All you need to know about Elon Musk-led company's foray into trading
2 min read . Updated: 14 Apr 2023, 05:50 AM IST
PremiumTwitter's Cashtags feature was launched in 2012 and allows users to interact with content around an asset by inserting a dollar sign in front of the ticker.
Elon Musk-led Twitter continues its foray into the world of finance, announcing a tie-up with trading and investing platform eToro on Thursday. The newly rolled out initiative will expand existing features, allowing users to view market charts, and buy and sell stocks and other assets from the social trading company.
The trading data will be available through Twitter's Cashtags feature, which was launched in 2012 and allows users to interact with content around an asset by inserting a dollar sign in front of the ticker.
What are cashtags?
According to the company, a cashtag is a “company ticker symbol preceded by the U.S. dollar sign (eg $TWTR)". A glossary of terms on the official website explains that one can see all tweets mentioning the same ticker symbol when they click on a cashtag.
A later update saw the Twitter Business account reveal that search results would now include the pricing graphs for major symbols.
How does one use cashtags?
“When you Tweet the symbol of a major stock, ETF, or crypto currency with a $ in front of it (like $BTC), people on Twitter see a clickable link that takes them to search results. You can also search for symbols directly, without clicking on a link within a Tweet. Most symbols with and without the $ sign will work in search (QQQ or $QQQ)," the Twitter Business handle had written in December 2022.
The official handle explained that one could then tap the chart to see “an interactive view powered by Trading View".
How does the new tie-up with eToro change things?
Twitter users were earlier able to view real-time trading data from markets-charting platform TradingView, but only on some assets such as the S&P 500 index and shares of certain companies such as Tesla. Now, they can click through to eToro's platform to see information about the asset, with an added option to invest.
“Very excited to be launching a new $Cashtags partnership with Twitter which will enable Twitter users to see real-time prices for a much wider range of stocks, crypto and other assets as well as having the option to invest through eToro," the platform had tweeted on Thursday.
What is the use of a cashtag?
In December last year Elon Musk had said that Cashtags with data from TradingView was "one of the many product improvements for financial Twitter". By some estimates millions of ordinary investors use the Twitter app on a daily basis to access financial news, disseminate information and socialise. The latest update aims to make life easier for crypto and other traders who may be using the platform to glean data and communicate.
(With inputs from agencies)