Thomson Reuters announces its expansion into social media.

The information provider now delivers analytics on 50,000 news sites and four million social media sites, helping customers to easily interpret data available on the internet. By offering the expansive wealth of social media and blog analytics in an easy-to-digest manner, Reuters aims to aid trading and investment firms identify new opportunities and to develop their trading strategy.

The introduction of the service follows a significant rise in the volume and influence of industry blogs, social networking and commentary websites in financial markets.

Aite Group research revealed 35% of quantitative firms are using a form of machine readable newsfeed today, compared to 2% three years ago.

Head of quantitative and event driven trading solutions, Thomson Reuters, Rich Brown, says: “Investment firms are embracing new data, tools and techniques to help make sense of the massive amounts of unstructured data available on the internet.

He continues: “This launch will give investors additional capabilities to gauge stock, sector, and market sentiment, and to translate these emerging sources of market insight into data that can be incorporated into both quantitative strategies and as a way to provide a broader context to human analysts."