From uprisings in North Africa to the antics of errant celebrities, the realm of social networking has come to dominate the popular and political consciousness. Now, the industry is hotly awaiting the launch of a hedge fund that is looking to use social networking site Twitter to drive its trading strategy.

UK -based hedge fund Derwent Capital, which is due to launch in the coming weeks, has said it will be dedicating £25m to a Twitter-led trading strategy that will use information from the social networking site to predict movements in stock prices.