StockTwits is an open, community-powered investment idea and information service utilizing Twitter.

Features:

• simple login with Twitter credentials
• follow tweets from traders/investors big and small
• tweet cloud shows trending topics
• create portfolio
• filter tweets based on source or stock
• Firefox extension to link back tagged tickers to StockTwits

The Good:

StockTwits pitches itself as Bloomberg for the little guy and gal. Users can eavesdrop on what traders and investors are talking about “live” or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation and following as a savvy market wizard. This is a very popular application, rather addictive, like…Twitter.

One great feature is the ability to add stocks and save them to your own portfolio and limit the conversation around it to your most trusted sources. Users can watch the whole stream or create their own filters. The site aggregates ‘buzz’ and discussion around individual stocks. No other financial site on the web does that, and it does it real-time because of the Twitter integration. The Firefox extension is another brilliant feature for keeping up with things.

The Not-so-Good:

We couldn’t find much to complain about on StockTwits. It is a novel idea and provides a unique and useful platform for traders and investors to stay on top of things, or show off. One small thing bothered us (and maybe it’s just us): whenever we linked from the StockTwits main site to the blog (which was light on content anyway), we kept getting kicked out and had to login again when we wanted back to the main site. Also, because we are all thumbs, often when we type StockTwits it ends up as StockTits, which is amusing the first couple of times, but completely inappropriate and shameful and should stop immediately.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ♦♦♦♦