Remy Blaire: Today is the final day of Stocktoberfest.
The three-day event has featured conversations from top DeFi as well as TradFi leaders, as big firms and brokerages explore adopting agentic AI, digital assets, as well as tokenization.
Now, this year's Stocktoberfest is sponsored by Trader ETFs, highlighting a shift across trading products in the institutional ETF landscape.
Well, joining us at this noon hour from Stocktoberfest to weigh in on this year's conference is Stocktwits Chief Commercial Officer Anne Marie Gianutsos.
Anne Marie, great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.
Anne Marie Gianutsos: It's such a beautiful day in New York. So happy to be here with you.
Remy Blaire: Yeah. I'm so glad you're joining us outside. It is crisp, and it is very nice here at City Winery.
But, of course, you have been so busy with Stocktoberfest.
So tell us what's been going on and what you've been hearing from the attendees.
Anne Marie Gianutsos: It's an electric day, and it's an exciting atmosphere right downstairs from where we're sitting here.
So Stocktoberfest, for those that aren't familiar, brings together a really unique consortium of public companies, CEOs, retail influencers and investors, and investor relations professionals for a three-day conversation that typically only happens on online mediums.
They're getting to sit down face-to-face and ask the tough questions.
And there's already been some healthy debate happening over the future of agentic AI and the role of how information disseminates.
So, good stuff.
Remy Blaire: Yeah, absolutely.
And I know that you have been hard at work not just talking to a lot of the attendees, but also engaging in sports as well as meals and all sorts of activities.
But give us a sense of what some of the feedback has been this year.
Anne Marie Gianutsos: So this Stocktoberfest aims to really kind of build these connections and these conversations for the long term, instead of it being just a fleeting moment, as you might have at other conference experiences.
We want people to keep these conversations, form deals and relationships overall.
So we started yesterday with a day at the beautiful, beautiful Century Country Club, where we did golf, tennis and paddle.
And then we brought everybody for a pizza party in the West Village and ended the night last night with a comedy club.
So people really got to know each other in those circumstances.
And it's fun to see everyone kind of mixing and mingling and being able to ask questions that maybe they would have been intimidated to ask if you hadn't golfed with a person or sat next to them at a comedy club last night.
Remy Blaire: Yeah.
And this year, the event is taking place in New York City.
So what made you and the Stocktwits team choose New York City versus, say, your other locations?
Anne Marie Gianutsos: I mean, there's no better city in the world.
I'm a New Yorker myself, but that's not the main reason we chose it.
We try to bring the conversation sort of around so it's accessible to all.
Last year, we were in San Diego, in Coronado, and then we'll have to see where we take it next year.
But so far, the feedback being in New York has been great.
As you know, it's a very busy season. We're coming up on earnings, and there's a lot of things happening.
So by intentionally hosting it in New York, we're able to get more people to join the conversation than, say, if we put it in a remote destination.
Remy Blaire: Yeah.
And obviously, when retail investors out there think of Stocktwits, they might think of social media.
And I'm sure you'll be accepting feedback for next year's Stocktoberfest and where they would like to go.
But give us a sense of the volatility in the marketplace, what's happening within the Stocktwits community this year, both online and in person.
Anne Marie Gianutsos: Well, when there is volatility in the markets, we see a tremendous influx of conversation that's happening on the platform.
Because Stocktwits is meant to be a guide for retail investors and traders, sort of like a Sherpa to help them make smarter choices with their money.
And so with the increase in volatility comes the increase in analysis that's happening on the platform, increase in discourse that's happening between our community members.
It's really fun for Stocktoberfest, in the midst of what is kind of a volatile day, for those conversations to be taking place off of an online forum and in person.
Remy Blaire: And, of course, I have to ask you about artificial intelligence, in particular agentic AI, because, as you mentioned, we have been seeing so much volatility across markets.
So we just had record highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq yesterday, and we are looking at Treasury yields higher yet once again, and they are at multi-decade highs.
So what do you think is important when it comes to AI, particularly agentic AI?
Anne Marie Gianutsos: So there's a lot of different lenses being applied to AI at the conference and what's being discussed.
So we're hearing everything from public company CEOs describing how AI is completely revolutionizing their supply chain, how it's speeding everything up.
And then out of the same mouths, we're hearing how AI can also pose challenges when they're trying to communicate with investor bases, from institutional to retail.
Because AI can compress messages. It can take things out of context.
So like anything else, like any emerging technology, AI poses both opportunities and challenges.
And it's just taking that long view and being very committed to the mission of the company that's helping these teams and these companies navigate through all of the opportunities and challenges that AI poses.
Remy Blaire: And someone such as yourself at Stocktwits, I'm sure you also pay attention to the data, some of the trends that you're seeing across your social platforms.
So give us a sneak peek into that data as we head into the end of 2026.
Anne Marie Gianutsos: So we like to look at many different aspects of the data.
I think what's most interesting about our community is the proliferation of alts in the market, right?
So Stocktwits was created for people that love to talk about stocks all day long.
Then came crypto.
Now we're seeing so much talk about perps. We're talking about prediction markets.
We're talking in major ways about tokenization and how that is reaching global markets and creating an influx of external capital into the U.S. markets in ways that have never been experienced before.
It's really such a privilege to be part of a platform where all of these cutting-edge conversations are happening, and we're really seeing progress in the markets through these conversations.
Remy Blaire: Yeah.
And when we take a step back, of course, the conversation has also been about innovation in terms of products for retail investors out there.
But when it comes to Stocktwits, what are some innovations that you're looking at?
Anne Marie Gianutsos: That's a good question.
I think we're best known as a platform that's 17 years old. We're the creators of the cashtag.
It was incredible to see during the keynote today that the cashtag's use has reached all the way to the president's office.
So while, yes, we have lots of innovations coming up, I think we're best known for sticking to our knitting and being the trusted source of information.
And it's a place where you can come and not be overrun by bad actors and bots and spam, because we take that so seriously in terms of being a clean and an open community that has rules where people can have these important discussions about the market and actually walk away with a sense of clarity instead of confusion.
Remy Blaire: And Anne Marie, for viewers out there who are not here in New York City and they're not attending Stocktoberfest at City Winery, give us a summary of what you've seen so far from the speakers today and what we can expect heading into the rest of the afternoon.
Anne Marie Gianutsos: Yeah. I think there's an incredible amount of optimism.
I think that leaders today feel that there is endless possibility because of what technology is coming.
But with that technology comes great responsibility. That was definitely a key theme.
So I think the balance of investors that are thinking through, where do I place my money and what companies do I trust?
The other key theme that has come through is go back to the fundamentals.
You know, what worked 10 years ago today in terms of operating and building a business for longevity still works, even in the advent of AI.
AI is just speeding it up.
Remy Blaire: And finally, before I let you go, this has been quite the year for the markets.
And I know you touched upon DeFi, and obviously we have been keeping an eye on crypto prices.
But when it comes to that space, you mentioned perps.
What else are you paying attention to, and what excites you the most?
Anne Marie Gianutsos: For me, it's the tokenization of real-world assets.
Like, I just think that that wave is coming in a way that we haven't even started to feel here.
And I think that the opportunity is large and global.
So for me, it doesn't get any better than what's going on with tokenization.
Remy Blaire: Well, Anne Marie, it was so great talking to you.
Thank you so much for joining us as we wind down Stocktoberfest, and I appreciate all of your insights today.
Anne Marie Gianutsos: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
