If Buffett Joined Twitter, Would Twitter Stock Be a Short If It Was Public?

May 2, 2013 by Jon C. Ogg

What happens when the last person joins a long-lasting trend? Chances are high that the trend is ending. We are not going to dare call a peak in Twitter here, but the notion that Warren Buffett is now tweeting might not be quite the good news that it seems on the surface.

The tweet “Warren is in the house” ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) annual meeting might as well have said “Warren is the house.”  The @WarrenBuffett profile has now gathered a whopping 109,534 followers as of 2:35 p.m. EST on Thursday. You can bet that the number will grow much more, and you can bet that now social media addicts can hear the same canned statements like “America’s greatest days are ahead of it” live on their social media feeds. Our only advice to social media readers is that just because it came from Mr. Buffett doesn’t make it so.

Hopefully Mr. Buffett will not start using Twitter to communicate sensitive financial communication about the economy or about politics and financial history. The public just might forget that Buffett is simply talking up his positions and making sure that investors don’t panic out of their Berkshire Hathaway stock.

Here is the funny thing. Warren Buffett probably had his secretary or someone else do the tweet for him. If Twitter was a public stock, chances are high that traders might have sold into this news. They may have even short sold it.

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