Two Worlds, One Stock
There are two conversations happening about every stock. Wall Street analysts at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan publish price targets and buy/sell ratings based on financial models and management meetings. Meanwhile, millions of retail investors on WallStreetBets, r/investing, and r/stocks share due diligence, debate theses, and move markets through collective action.
These two conversations rarely overlap. Institutional analysts don't read Reddit. Retail investors often can't access analyst research.
Barebone AI's "What Investors Are Saying" Skill bridges both worlds. It aggregates sentiment from institutional analysts, social media communities, insider trading patterns, and news sources - then presents a unified view with dual gauge meters showing exactly where institutional and retail sentiment stand.
The 6 Data Sources
When you run the sentiment Skill on any stock, Barebone AI simultaneously pulls 6 datasets:
1. Analyst Consensus Ratings
Aggregated ratings from all covering Wall Street analysts:
- Number of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell ratings
- Consensus recommendation
- Average price target and the range (highest to lowest)
- Recent rating changes - upgrades and downgrades in the last 30/60/90 days
2. Price Target Consensus
Detailed breakdown of analyst price targets:
- Current consensus vs. current stock price (implied upside/downside)
- Trend direction - are analysts raising or lowering their targets?
- Distribution of targets - are analysts clustered or widely dispersed (high dispersion = high uncertainty)
3. Reddit Trending Data
From APE Wisdom (a Reddit financial discussion aggregator):
- Mention frequency across WallStreetBets, r/investing, r/stocks, r/cryptocurrency
- Mention velocity - is discussion increasing or decreasing?
- Rank among all discussed tickers
- 24-hour rank change
4. Company-Specific News
Recent news articles about the company:
- Headline and source
- Publication timestamp
- AI-classified sentiment (positive, negative, neutral)
- Relevance score to the stock
5. Company Profile & Key Metrics
Financial context for interpreting sentiment:
- Current price and recent performance
- P/E ratio, market cap, revenue growth
- Sector and industry classification
6. Insider Trading Activity
What company insiders (CEOs, CFOs, directors) are actually doing with their own money:
- Net insider buying or selling
- Size and frequency of recent transactions
- Whether insider activity aligns with or contradicts Wall Street sentiment
Institutional vs. Retail Sentiment
The headline output is two gauge meters displayed side by side:
Institutional Sentiment Gauge Ranges from Strong Bearish to Strong Bullish. Calculated from analyst ratings, price target direction, and recent rating changes. A stock with 80% Buy/Strong Buy ratings and rising price targets registers as strongly bullish. A stock with mostly Hold ratings and declining targets registers as neutral or mildly bearish.
Retail Sentiment Gauge Ranges from Strong Bearish to Strong Bullish. Calculated from Reddit mention volume, mention velocity, discussion sentiment (bullish vs. bearish posts), and the direction of community interest.
The most interesting signals come when these gauges diverge:
- Wall Street Bullish + Reddit Bearish: Institutional confidence that retail hasn't caught up to. Could be an early opportunity.
- Wall Street Bearish + Reddit Bullish: Retail enthusiasm that institutional investors are skeptical of. Could be a momentum trade or a trap.
- Both Bullish: Consensus conviction. The stock has support from both capital pools.
- Both Bearish: Consensus negativity. Either a potential contrarian opportunity or a falling knife.
The Catalyst Timeline
Below the gauge meters, the AI generates a timeline feed of catalysts - events and developments that are driving current sentiment:
- Earnings reports (recent beats or misses)
- Analyst upgrades or downgrades
- Product launches or FDA approvals
- Management changes
- Competitive developments
- Macro events affecting the sector
- Notable Reddit discussions or viral posts
Each catalyst is tagged with its sentiment direction and the source, so you can trace any sentiment shift back to its origin.
Cross-Referenced Intelligence
What makes Barebone's approach institutional-grade is the cross-referencing. The AI doesn't just present each data source in isolation - it synthesizes them:
"Wall Street consensus is moderately bullish (72% Buy ratings, average price target 15% above current price), but retail sentiment on Reddit has turned notably bearish over the past week following [specific catalyst]. Meanwhile, the CEO purchased $2.4M in stock last Tuesday - the largest insider purchase in 18 months. This divergence between declining retail sentiment and strong insider buying suggests [analysis]."
This kind of synthesis - connecting dots across institutional research, social media, and insider behavior - is exactly what a senior analyst on a multi-strategy hedge fund does. The difference is they get paid $800K for it, and you're getting it for $9.99/month.
Why Sentiment Data Matters for Investment Decisions
Sentiment isn't just feelings. It drives capital flows:
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Analyst upgrades trigger institutional buying programs. When Goldman Sachs upgrades a stock to Buy, funds that follow their recommendations allocate capital. That creates buying pressure.
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Reddit momentum concentrates retail buying. When a stock trends on WallStreetBets, thousands of retail traders buy call options, which forces market makers to buy shares to hedge (gamma squeeze dynamics).
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Insider buying signals management confidence. Academic research shows cluster insider purchases predict 12-month outperformance with statistical significance.
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News sentiment creates narrative momentum. A string of positive articles builds buying interest; a string of negative articles creates selling pressure.
Understanding what each stakeholder group thinks - and does - about a stock gives you the full picture that pure fundamental or technical analysis misses.
How Other Tools Handle Sentiment
ChatGPT: Can discuss sentiment conceptually but has no real-time data feeds. It can't tell you the current analyst consensus or Reddit mention count.
Bloomberg Terminal: Has analyst consensus data and news sentiment. Doesn't track Reddit. Costs $25,000/year.
Standalone Reddit trackers: Several apps track Reddit mentions but don't integrate with analyst ratings, insider data, or AI analysis.
Barebone AI: Combines all sources - analyst consensus, Reddit trending, insider trading, and news sentiment - in a single analysis with dual gauge visualization and AI synthesis. Mobile app for $9.99-$19.99/month.
Getting Started
Open Barebone AI, select the "What Investors Are Saying" Skill, and enter any ticker. In seconds, you'll see exactly what Wall Street thinks, what Reddit thinks, what insiders are doing, and how these signals align or conflict. It's the most complete sentiment picture available outside of an institutional trading desk.
The market is a voting machine in the short term. Knowing how everyone is voting - and why - gives you an edge that pure analysis alone doesn't provide.