Financial influencers, or "finfluencers," have become prominent players on social media, reaching millions of followers. But how much do they actually sway the investment choices of their audience, particularly younger investors? A study by St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences and Paradots sheds light on this phenomenon, surveying 300 followers (aged 18-34) of German-speaking finfluencers on Instagram.
I'm introducing our new Finfluencers Directory – an initial mapping of the financial influencer space that catalogs podcasts and YouTube channels who regularly share stock picks and market predictions.
In today's digital landscape, financial advice is abundant and free. From YouTube gurus to Twitter/X personalities, podcast hosts to newsletter writers - financial influencers ("finfluencers") are shaping investment decisions for millions. But in this sea of predictions and recommendations, how many of us actually track whether these experts deliver results?
Adding a newsletter subscription form to a static site seems straightforward—until you consider security implications. In this post, I'll share how I implemented a secure newsletter subscription for my MkDocs-based blog using Cloudflare Turnstile and a serverless API.
Building Finfluencers Bet is a journey, and I'm committed to documenting it openly – the technical challenges, research findings, and strategic pivots. This blog is central to that "Building in Public" approach.
Documenting this journey requires a blog that's easy to manage and integrates with my development workflow. After considering different options, I chose MkDocs with the Material theme because its focus on Markdown, static site generation, and developer experience perfectly matched my needs for the Finfluencers Bet blog.