As Stocktwits puts its finishing touches on our new mobile apps for launch next month (forced team pressure), I have been rethinking sign in flow and profiles loading hundreds of new apps the last few months to see how the product design teams are thinking. As I mentioned in a blog post last month, the financial industry is stuck in mud. They think of traders and investors in terms of novice, intermediate and professional and also years of experience. At Stocktwits, we are speeding up the growth curve of traders and investors. I know this for a fact because I talk to thousands of investors a month on our platform. The people/mentor web and light form of communication and sharing on Stocktwits works. The last 3 years have been a crazy good bull market for sure, but we started in the absolute depths of despair back in October 2008 and so we have also seen the dark side.

What could be worse than sending someone with a lot of experience to a profile page that calls out a member as a ‘Novice’. I believe that person becomes too easy to dismiss. Of course, if you are a beginner, you should feel comfortable declaring so as it might mean you are on our site to learn and improve your skills, but even Novices have experience and knowledge about certain areas of the market that they should be encouraged to share.

Furthermore, in our world, a good percentage of people will not share their real identities. Luckily, the timeline of ideas is your identity. I think the @ handles are very limiting in creativity and space. I believe traders and investors should have handles and nicknames with some style and pizzaz…For instance combining the name of the street you grew up on with your mother’s maiden name. Mine is Strathearn Brandwein.

In thinking through this problem I jotted a few new categories down that may increase engagement and community as we seek out trading and investing knowledge from the hundreds of thousands of profiles on Stocktwits.

PLEASE chime in on the comments to expand on these ideas…thanks:

Larry the Lurker – I just like watching from the sidelines. I appreciate all the ideas and flow and sharing and I promise to chime in every once in a while with a thank-you. Most of the web is Larry the Lurker. Ladies…if you lurk, you are now Lisa the Lurker!

Impatient optimist – You have confidence in your investments and trades but cant understand why they don’t move faster and steeper in your favor sooner. I am a bit cranky on the streams, but my heart is in the right place. Bill Gates is an impatient optimist.

Cranky Fundamentalist – You buy companies that nobody likes. You have your thesis and you don’t want to hear from others on why you just might be early or dare I say wrong.

Raging Bull – You like everything, all the time. There is always a trade and you will find it. You can’t take a day off but you don’t want to take a day off. You just want to beat the market into submission.

Dow Zero – It’s just a matter of time. I like Zero Hedge and being hit in the head. Before Stocktwits I used to get kicked off every financial platform for being mean. There is hope!

Eclectic Opportunist – You like bull markets, the trend is your friend, but with the right setup and the odds in your favor, you will trade anything. People matter just as much as price and volume. I am in search of smart people and big opportunities all the time.

Day Trader – I grind and poke and prod at trades all day but in the end my overriding goal besides profits is getting flat by the end of the day.

Who are you? Which type of investor am i missing…?