REUTERS/Sue Ogrocki Trader Anthony Pontarelli jumps above the rest of the traders as he works a trade in the Eurodollar pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as limited trading resumes at the CME, September 13, 2001, after a two-day halt due to the terrorist activities in the nation.
That in turn is creating an eco-system of companies looking to make sense of Twitter data and pull the signal from the noise.
According to a TABB Group report issued last week, the industry is growing at a rapid pace.
"There's not going to be one firm on top," said TABB's Valerie Bogard, a research analyst. "There's going to be multiple firms."
Some of the startups have already been snapped up by bigger corporates looking to get an early edge on analytics.
Twitter itself spent upwards of $130 million just a year ago to buy Gnip, now used to help disseminate data to startups that in turn relay that information to hedge funds, among other clients.
Elaine Ellis, a marketing manager at Gnip, told Business Insider that Twitter also sells data to banks and hedge funds directly.
She said: "We know Tweets move markets. Our public, real-time nature positions us perfectly to be a source for the financial industry. We believe that in the future, this will evolve from a nice to have to a must have for all industry participants."
Bogard told Business Insider that everyone from investors in munis to traditional funds with long-only strategies are trying to turn real-time commentary into critical analysis ahead of the tape.
Not all social signals are created equal, of course. In fact, some are created to throw Wall Street's brightest minds off the scent of what's actually happening.
Here are some of the startups looking to turn Tweets into trading signals: