One of the things I love about Twitter (yeah, I love it and I’m not afraid to say it) is that it’s less of a social network and more of an interest network (you’ll make some friends along the way too). I’ve talked before when it comes to networks about quantity versus quality. While the market has for so long viewed Twitter in my opinion based on quantity (Facebook has 6 times the user base as Twitter for example) I personally view Twitter more from the quality perspective. It’s just so damned useful. It’s the network where anything and everything in the world is happening. Sure it’s a smaller (direct) user base but even if you don’t use Twitter you see Tweets all over the place every day coming from reputable sources in whatever vertical interests you.

Speaking of verticals my eyes were opened yesterday to just how important Twitter is in the medical community. Now I’m no doctor and I’ve never played one on TV but I recently started engaging with a radiologist on Twitter who opened my eyes to the growing role Twitter is playing in the medical community. I asked Matt (@MFCovington) if I could share the direct message he sent me as I found it quite fascinating and he’s given me the green light, so here it is below (thanks Matt!):

“This is a fantastic platform. Preferred social network for doctors and a fantastic resource for physicians to network and connect with peers and get up to date, truly relevant info faster than the medical journals. Twitter has become an integral part of many large medical conferences, healthcare tweetchats are common, and the merits of physicians being involved on Twitter is a common theme discussed in medical journals, particularly in my specialty of radiology. LinkedIn doesn’t seem to have this same presence among many physicians. Facebook, Instagram, and the others (does Snapchat even deserve mention here?) are not used as a professional information and networking resource, as is seen with Twitter.”
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I remain convinced that Twitter the network has only scratched the surface of its overall potential which is why I plan on holding my shares for quite some time to come. It sounds like Matt is in the same boat thanks to his experience with the platform. Like we always say here, investing is a marathon not a sprint. And while Twitter got off to a slow start it sure seems like strong leadership has the platform and the business headed in the right direction. I assume they know (at least to a degree) about Matt’s perspective here and the role Twitter can and does play in the medical community; in the age of telemedicine and virtual healthcare it seems like an opportunity. If not then consider this my polite “ahem, Jack you may want to take a look at this” moment. So ahem Jack, you may want to take a look at this.


Jason A. Moser
Senior Analyst, The Motley Fool
@TMFJMo

One of the opportunities my job has afforded me is being a part of Investor Place’s Best Stock of the Year contest for the past three years. The idea is simple: Pick your favorite stock for the given year, put it up against noine other stock pickers and may the best man or woman win. I’ve been part of the contest for the last three years and will gladly keep doing it until they tell me to stop.

My first pick in 2016 was Ellie Mae and while it didn’t win it still did well. Last year I went with TripAdvisor which didn’t have such a hot year. This year I called out Twitter as my idea to beat and so far it’s having a great year.
The important part to note with all three (and any future) picks is that while I’m picking them for a one-year contest, I’m also picking them as businesses I like well beyond just a year. Anyone who knows me knows I invest with a longer timeframe in mind and these are businesses that I think have the potential to do well for years to come. With that in mind I’ll be keeping track of the portfolio’s performance over time for posterity. Below is a snapshot of how the portfolio is performing to date:

So as it stands my portfolio of picks is doing quite well returning 68.7% since inception versus the market's 25.1%; let's hope this continues. For my tracking purposes I kept it simple and assumed $1,000 invested into each individual position based on the closing price on the date each recommendation was published. This was equally weighted with $1,000 also going into the S&P 500 (SPY) based on the closing price of the same date. I use the SPY as it is dividend adjusted. I’ll come back here on occasion to update the returns or offer any opinions on concerns that may arise.

*DIsclosure: At the time of writing I hold shares of ELLI, TRIP & TWTR in my personal portfolio.

​JMo