# Fake AP tweet: explosions at White House

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-ap-tweet-explosions-at-white-house/656599>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 24, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-ap-tweet-explosions-at-white-house/656599 "2013-04-24T16:05:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-ap-tweet-explosions-at-white-house/656599/1 "2013-04-24T16:05:23Z")

</div>

[Hackers broke into the Associated Press Twitter account Tuesday afternoon and posted a bogus story about an explosion at the White House. It sent the stock market into a tizzy for about five minutes.](http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/04/23/obama-carney-associated-press-hack-white-house/2106757/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-ap-tweet-explosions-at-white-house/656599/2 "2013-04-24T16:36:42Z")

</div>

1. Short stocks
2. Hack AP
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-ap-tweet-explosions-at-white-house/656599/3 "2013-04-24T16:52:49Z")

</div>

> [@Colophon](#):
>
> 1. Short stocks
> 2. Hack AP
> 3. ???
> 4. PROFIT!!!

I believe you’re looking for - 3. Cover short position

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-ap-tweet-explosions-at-white-house/656599/4 "2013-04-24T17:04:49Z")

</div>

> [@Trom](#):
>
> I believe you’re looking for - 3. Cover short position

Well yeah.

It’s interesting, though, the speed of the mini-crash has led some commentators to suggest that keywords from Twitter are directly feeding automatic selling programs. No doubt some people who thought they were pretty smart ended up taking a bath on this. Expect to see more of the same…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-ap-tweet-explosions-at-white-house/656599/5 "2013-04-24T17:22:13Z")

</div>

> [@Colophon](#):
>
> Well yeah.
> 
> It’s interesting, though, the speed of the mini-crash has led some commentators to suggest that keywords from Twitter are directly feeding automatic selling programs. No doubt some people who thought they were pretty smart ended up taking a bath on this. Expect to see more of the same…

Yeah, machines reading the news is no new thing in the trading world. Even “old school” companies like Reuters offer a machine readable news [product.](http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/financial/financial_products/a-z/machine_readable_news/)

> [@](#):
>
> Thomson Reuters Machine Readable News is the industry’s most advanced service for automating the consumption and systematic analysis of news. It delivers deep historical news archives, ultra-low latency structured news and leading edge news analytics directly to applications. This enables algorithms to exploit the power of news to seize opportunities, capitalize on market inefficiencies and manage event risk.

A couple years ago there was a hedge fund that made trades based solely on sentiment on Twitter. They actually beat the market (for the short time they were running). Now they sell their proprietary social media analytics tools.