A financial blog is a website which focuses on providing information about financial matters on a regularly updated basis, often many times a day, to keep up with financial news. Blog, a contraction of "web log," refers to a website which is updated regularly by one person or a group of people, and organized into entries which cover a variety of different topics. Listings of blogs arranged by topic can be found at a number of websites which act as directories, and people can also use blog search engines such as Google's blog search to find blogs on topics which interest them.
There are a number of different angles from which financial blogs can examine financial matters. A personal finance blog discusses ways in which people can gain better control of their personal finances. Such sites provide information about managing personal debt, smart investments for individuals, ways to cut living expenses, and other topics which may be of interest. A personal finance blog can also provide information from a consumers' rights perspective to familiarize people with abusive lending practices, ways to negotiate with banks, and other issues.
Information about the investment community, the banking industry, and other aspects of the financial world are covered on other financial blogs. People who are involved in investments use many different resources to gather information to make smart investing decisions. A financial blog which aggregates information can be very useful for investors. Blogs may also discuss issues like financial regulation, economic health, and other topics.
Financial blogs are not necessarily benign. In some cases, a financial blog may be part of a plan to manipulate the stock market by providing investors with misleading information or spurring investors into an action which will benefit some investors while harming others. For example, someone using a pump and dump scheme would inflate the value of stock and then sell it at a high price and profit.
Many financial publications with a presence online also have financial blogs attached to their websites for the benefit of readers and users. Such blogs tend to be reliable because respectable publications do not want to be accused of stock market manipulation, and the recommendations they make for other websites can often be relied upon. When examining a financial blog to determine whether or not it is legitimate, a reader should consider who owns the financial blog, whether it is affiliated with any organizations, and how the information it provides is framed.