Method and apparatus of analyzing social network data to identify a financial market trend

1. A method comprising:

determining, by a computing device of an online financial information provider, a trend in number of social media references to a financial market instrument using a corpus of social media posts of a number of users of at least one social media system, each social media post of the corpus containing a reference to the financial market instrument;

identifying, by the computing device, a sentiment associated with the financial market instrument using the corpus of social media posts;

selecting, by the computing device, the financial market instrument using the determined trend in number of social media references to the financial market instrument and the identified sentiment associated with the financial market instrument; and

displaying, via the computing device, information indicating the determined trend in number of social media references to the financial market instrument in a display of the online financial information provider at a number of client computing devices, the displaying comprising transmitting the information via an electronic communications network to the number of client computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1 , the identified sentiment is a positive sentiment.

3. The method of claim 1 , the determined trend is an upward trend.

4. The method of claim 1 , determining the trend further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, a percentage change in number of references to the financial market instrument using the corpus of social media posts; and

determining, by the computing device, the trend for the financial market instrument using the determined percentage change in number of social media references to the financial market instrument.

5. The method of claim 4 , the selecting further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, a numeric weighting for the identified sentiment; and

determining, by the computing device, a combined value for the financial market instrument by applying the numeric weighting for the identified sentiment to the determined percentage change in number of social media references to the financial market instrument; and

selecting, by the computing device, the financial market instrument using the determined combined value.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying, by the computing device, a second sentiment associated with a second financial market instrument using a second corpus of social media posts, each social media post of the second corpus of social media posts containing a reference to the second financial market instrument; and

excluding, by the computing device, the second financial market instrument from selection using the second sentiment associated with the second financial market instrument.

7. The method of claim 6 , the second sentiment associated with the second financial market instrument is a negative sentiment or a neutral sentiment.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining, by a computing device, a second trend in number of social media references to the second financial market instrument using the second corpus of social media posts of a number of users of at least one social media system, each social media post of the second corpus containing a reference to the second financial market instrument.

9. The method of claim 8 , the second trend identified for the second financial market instrument using the second corpus of social media posts is an upward trend.

10. The method of claim 8 , determining the second trend further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, a second percentage change in number of references to the second financial market instrument using the second corpus of social media posts; and

determining, by the computing device, the second trend for the second financial market instrument using the second percentage change in number of social media references to the second financial market instrument.

11. The method of claim 10 , excluding the second market instrument from selection further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, a numeric weighting for the second sentiment identified for the second financial market instrument;

determining, by the computing device, a combined value for the second financial market instrument by applying the numeric weighting associated with the second sentiment to the second percentage change in number of social media references to the second financial market instrument; and

excluding, by the computing device, the second financial market instrument from selection using the combined value.

12. The method of claim 1 , the financial market instrument is associated with a company and the trend in number of social media references to the financial market instrument indicating a trend for the company.

13. The method of claim 1 , the financial market instrument is associated with a company and the identified sentiment indicating a sentiment for the company.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded with computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor associated with a computing device perform a method comprising:

determining a trend in number of social media references to a financial market instrument using a corpus of social media posts of a number of users of at least one social media system, each social media post of the corpus containing a reference to the financial market instrument;

identifying a sentiment associated with the financial market instrument using the corpus of social media posts;

selecting the financial market instrument using the determined trend in number of social media references to the financial market instrument and the identified sentiment associated with the financial market instrument; and

displaying information indicating the determined trend in number of social media references to the financial market instrument in a display of an online financial information provider at a number of client computing devices, the displaying comprising transmitting the information via an electronic communications network to the number of client computing devices.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , the identified sentiment is a positive sentiment.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , the determined trend is an upward trend.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , determining the trend further comprising:

determining a percentage change in number of references to the financial market instrument using the corpus of social media posts; and

determining the trend for the financial market instrument using the determined percentage change in number of social media references to the financial market instrument.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , the method further comprising:

identifying a second sentiment associated with a second financial market instrument using a second corpus of social media posts, each social media post of the second corpus of social media posts containing a reference to the second financial market instrument; and

excluding the second financial market instrument from selection using the second sentiment associated with the second financial market instrument.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , the second sentiment associated with the second financial market instrument is a negative sentiment or a neutral sentiment.

20. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising:

determining logic executed by the processor for determining a trend in number of social media references to a financial market instrument using a corpus of social media posts of a number of users of at least one social media system, each social media post of the corpus containing a reference to the financial market instrument;

identifying logic executed by the processor for identifying a sentiment associated with the financial market instrument using the corpus of social media posts;

selecting logic executed by the processor for selecting the financial market instrument using the determined trend in number of social media references to the financial market instrument and the identified sentiment associated with the financial market instrument; and

displaying logic executed by the processor for displaying information indicating the determined trend in number of social media references to the financial market instrument in a display of an online financial information provider at a number of client computing devices, the displaying comprising transmitting the information via an electronic communications network to the number of client computing devices.