iBankCoin
18 years in Wall Street, left after finding out it was all horseshit. Founder/ Master and Commander: iBankCoin, finance news and commentary from the future.
Joined Nov 10, 2007
23,439 Blog Posts

If the Markets Are So Great, Why Are Finance Sites Struggling to Attract Readers?

As markets continue to break record highs, the echelon of premier finance sites in America continues to undergo deleterious drawdowns in their traffic. Anyone who operates a finance site knows that lack of volatility is the death knell for traffic. People aren’t interested in reading about stocks, generally speaking, when markets are effervescently gliding towards new highs. They are, in fact, keenly interested in horrible news and/or rapidly declining equity prices.

According to data provided by Alexa.com, sites solely focused on finance have struggled, mightily, especially in recent months. Part of it has to do with boring markets — but another working theory is the recent news cycle dominated by politics.

cnbc bloomberg benzinga barrons Thestreet marketwatch Fool SeekingAlpha hedgeeyeEstimize

Note that sites that mix geopolitical events with finance are doing a lot better, as of late.
iBankCoinzerohedge

And a look at an ETF representative of the VIX index.
vxx

Notice a correlation?

One my favorite market tells is the correlation between traffic spikes and market bottoms. Here is a look at the traffic at iBankCoin from July of 2015 to March of 2016. Markets bottomed, from a calamitous drop of more than 10%, which was the worst start to a new year on record, on February the 8th, 2016.

Traffic

In short, we’re gonna need a market crash in order to reverse the insipid digital trends in finance.

If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter

32 comments

  1. fxtradepro

    I heard if you just click the “buy” button all day really fast, you can make a lot of guilt free money quickly! Seriously tho, VIX at 10!?volatility is not far behind.

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  2. jts5362

    Fly, general question…are you in control of what ads are being displayed on your site? I am seeing countless “Resist Trump” ads

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
    • jts5362

      Or have you sold your soul to George Soros?

      • 0
      • 0
      • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
    • Dr. Fly

      No. The ads are run by our vendor. It’s either a program ad or based on your search traffic.

      • 2
      • 1
      • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
    • mx2101

      jts5362- It’s my understanding some pop-up ads can be a result of your personal web browsing history. I saw a pop-up here for historic UK tours and wondered why it would be on I Bank Coin. Then I remembered browsing web content about castles in the UK.

      • 2
      • 0
      • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  3. soupbone

    Cause they cannot make you money but they can confuse the issues so you can lose quite alot of money if you try to follow.

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  4. wolfdaddy

    One issue is most of those sites suck ass. I’m surprised at Bloomberg’s drop however

    • 1
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  5. soupbone

    As you posted recently the real money is made in VC and IPO. The way I see it is buy good quality as you can and never sell.

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  6. TheBigRagu

    When a large percentage of the population can’t come up with $500 in an emergency, stock investing is the last thing on their mind.

    • 2
    • 1
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  7. ironbird

    CNBC went full open libtard and proved being a lying globalist scum propaganda machine. The little girls claiming to be experts were the icing on the con. Fuck with liberty and pay the price.

    • 4
    • 1
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
    • joyous__ending

      CNBC – TV is fine. Website has nothing that we can’t get on a brokerage site, same for Bloom.

      • 0
      • 0
      • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
      • ironbird

        Do not know about that. Kill big pharma ads and that shitshow is toast. Then again possibly the whole thing is Fake News.

        • 2
        • 1
        • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
    • cancel19

      I agree 100%.

      • 1
      • 0
      • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
    • bubbles

      So much this: I ad blocked them to Hel with Kenny and Saddam.

      • 0
      • 0
      • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  8. moosh

    Cocaine is a helluva drug. When does the new iPhone come out?

    • 3
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  9. TheBigRagu

    I would say yes to both. By most accounts only about 50% of Americans own stocks and we know our precious millennials don’t bother at all. Couple that with boomers who are approaching mandatory withdrawals from 401ks and you get an increasingly smaller group who are participating.

    • 1
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
    • Dr. Fly

      The golden age of investing died in 2000, came back fro a brief while in 2003-2007 and has been dead since.

      • 2
      • 0
      • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
      • soupbone

        Investing is not dead today. What died is the financial advisors. At first it was the mutual fund advisors who take HALF your return and suffer no risk, you take the risk. Laughable. So we seek something better maybe stocks trading is the answer. Well you know the answer to that riddle. The only way I have found is buy and hold.

        • 0
        • 0
        • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
        • Dr. Fly

          The death of financial advisors is widely exaggerated. My friends are making MOAR than ever, so there’s that.

          Gone are the days of wanton excitement and largess returns. Understand something, the ipo market is to blame, as the VC pigs steal all of the growth in the private markets and dump bullshit on us when they’re inflated.

          That’s why investing is dead.

          • 2
          • 0
          • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
        • soupbone

          Mini rant here: I am tempted to have my stocks certificates printed out in my name and sent to me whereby I will store them safely. Why having them in a banks name is good?

          • 0
          • 0
          • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  10. 99 lead balloons

    I am always getting ads for rushisn girlfriends. My wife is intrigued! Is putin behind this. Homewrecker!

    • 1
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  11. mr.wiggles

    Well that makes sense. I was wondering why ads for cuckold sites kept coming up on ibankcoin. Didn’t realize the advertisers cater to recent searches.

    • 1
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  12. cancel19

    Bad news and sex always sells. Excellent article Dr. Fly. Thanks for sharing that info and BTW congrats.

    • 1
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  13. clt

    Finance in general is just incredibly boring. Heck, even trading in general “should” be pretty boring. People are incredibly drawn to anger and negativity nowadays. I also think people that are drawn to this have weaker minds, and are fantastic customers. We are living in the reality tv generation(s) now…… I hope our “news” gets boring one day.

    • 2
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"
  14. pb

    IMO, crappy site design has something to do with the falling numbers. Thankfully, you don’t have that problem.

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 Deem this to be "Fake News"