Investor attention and cryptocurrency: Evidence from wavelet-based quantile Granger causality analysis

This paper investigates the relationship between investor attention and the major cryptocurrency markets by wavelet-based quantile Granger causality. The wavelet analysis illustrates the interdependence between investor attention and the cryptocurrency returns. Multi-scale quantile Granger causality based on wavelet decomposition further demonstrates bidirectional Granger causality between investor attention and the returns of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin for all quantiles, except for the medium. Among them, the Granger causality from investor attention to the returns is relatively very weak for Ethereum. In the short term, the Granger causality from these cryptocurrency returns to investor attention seems symmetric, but in the medium- and long- term, the causality shows some asymmetry. The Granger causality from investor attention to these cryptocurrency returns is asymmetric and varies across cryptocurrencies and time scales. Specifically, investor attention has a relatively stronger impact on the cryptocurrency returns in bearish markets than that in bullish markets in the short term.     

Extreme dependence in investor attention and stock returns – consequences for forecasting stock returns and measuring systemic risk

We characterize co-movements in investor attention by modeling multivariate internet search volume data. Using a variety of copula models that can capture both asymmetric and skewed dependence, we find empirical evidence of strong non-linear and asymmetric dependence in the attention investors give to companies. Modeling three years of daily stock returns and search volumes from Google Trends for 29 bank names, we find a striking similarity between the dependence structure inherent in stock returns and the dependence in the corresponding time series of search queries. We then document the existence of significant asymmetric and skewed tail dependence in the joint distribution of stock returns and investor attention. Finally, stock returns and internet search volumes appear to evolve concurrently in real time with neither one leading the other. Our findings have important implications, e.g. for the analysis of banks' interconnectedness based on equity data and the pricing of investor attention in the cross-section of stock returns.     

上市公司季报公布对股票收益率的影响

本文拟对沪深两市36家上市公司季报公布前后股票收益率变动情况进行研究。基于FFJR在1969年的文献中所提及的事件研究方法。发现每天的异常收益率在事件窗口中表现比较平稳，而每天累积的异常收益则具有明显的趋势，投资者在季报公布前后能获得显著的异常收益。反映出我国资本市场尚未达到半强有效，文章在最后指出一国应加强资本市场独立性的建设，有利于增强资本市场对宏观经济周期的超前预示作用。     

投资者关注对金银期货市场收益影响的时频分位研究

根据Google投资者关注度指数和金银期货市场交易数据,构建基于小波分解序列的时频门限自回归分布滞后模型,通过分位数模型参数估计,基于时域与频域联合分析视角,考量投资者关注度对金银期货市场收益的影响。结果表明：投资者关注度对金银期货市场的影响具有异质性;在低频域内,投资者关注度对金银期货市场影响相对较小;极端分位数水平下,投资者关注度对金银期货市场收益影响的时效性较短,投资者关注度对白银期货市场收益的影响较弱。     

Investor attention,index performance,and return predictability

We investigate a link between the performance of several security indexes in broad investment categories and investor attention as measured by Google search probability. We find that there is a significant short-term change in index returns following an increase in attention. Conversely, a shock to returns leads to a long-term change in attention. Given this evidence, we hypothesize that a change in index return or the sign of its return in the past can indicate the nature of the information that investors are paying attention to. Therefore, past returns should determine the impact of attention on the future returns and volatility. Indeed, we find significant interaction effects between lagged returns and attention. This result suggests that attention can alter predictability of index returns. Specifically, we demonstrate that increased investor attention diminishes return predictability and, therefore, improves market efficiency.     

Noise trading and stock market volatility

We investigate the relative effects of fundamental and noise trading on the formation of conditional volatility. We find significant positive (negative) effects of investor sentiments on stock returns (volatilities) for both individual and institutional investors. There are greater positive effects of rational sentiments on stock returns than irrational sentiments. Conversely, there are significant (insignificant) negative effects of irrational (rational) sentiments on volatility. Also, we find asymmetric (symmetric) spillover effects of irrational (rational) bullish and bearish sentiments on the stock market. Evidence in favor of irrational sentiments is consistent with the view that investor error is a significant determinant of stock volatilities.     

Changes in sentiment on REIT industry excess returns and volatility

REIT characteristics pose unique risks and benefits to investors who seek liquid diversification and hedging vehicles to complement their portfolios. This paper tests for the asymmetric effect of individual and institutional investor sentiment on REIT industry returns and conditional volatility. We simultaneously model the impact of two markedly different groups of investors on the return generating process of the REIT industry. Our findings suggest that noise trading imposes significant systemic risk on the realization of REIT industry returns. Interestingly, corrections in institutional investor expectations have a larger effect on REIT industry returns and volatility than changes in individual investor expectations. More specifically, bearish shifts in institutional investor expectations of future market conditions have a significantly larger impact on returns and volatility than bullish shifts. Results align with the overreaction to negative information and loss aversion hypotheses.     

Performance and Employer Stock in 401(k) Plans

Participants in 401(k) retirement plans violate the basic principle of diversification by investing significant fractions of their savings in their employers'equity. This paper characterizes investors'active changes to their company stock investment over time by analyzing new inflows and transfers. The average investor seems to base active changes on salient information, paying attention to past returns, volatility, and business performance. Past returns, over a three-year horizon, predict higher inflow allocations and transfers, whereas volatility and business performance only have a weak effect. The sensitivity to past returns is asymmetric, with investors reacting more strongly to positive and above-S&P500 returns.     

Corporate misconduct,media coverage,and stock returns

This study examines the impact of increased investor attention to corporate misconduct (CM) on stock returns. We show that media coverage provides an important channel through which investor awareness of corporate wrongdoings can be enhanced. Using a unique research setting in Korea based on text analysis during the 2008–2020 period, we find that investors exhibit short-term adverse reactions to CM events. More importantly, the increased social awareness of CM issues through media coverage leads investors to penalize firms more severely. We also find that the adverse reaction to CM events is more prominent for firms with a greater negative media tone and surprise. The combined evidence supports the investor attention theory. Furthermore, the negative effects of CM on stock returns are smaller for firms with positive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reputations, consistent with the insurance theory.     

Investor attention,ETF returns,and country-specific factors

Using the data of 47 single-country exchange-traded funds (ETFs) traded in the U.S. from 36 countries during 2004–2017, this research examines the impact of investor attention proxied by Google Search Volume Index and home country-specific factors on different quantile of their returns. Evidence first shows that compared with U.S. investor attention, home country investor attention largely correlates with low to medium ETF returns, supporting the attention-induced price pressure hypothesis. Second, home country-specific factors significantly affect ETF returns at different conditional quantiles. We also find that investors prefer investing in a country with strong similarity to that of the U.S., supporting the cross-country information asymmetry hypothesis. Third, an intervening effect of home country-specific factors exists on the relationship between U.S. investor attention and ETF returns. These findings should help government authorities find appropriate strategies to attract foreign investment and upgrade the value of their capital market as well as provide a reference on efficiency for equity investors.     

Investor attention in cryptocurrency markets

We examine the relationship between investor attention, and measures of uncertainty, with the market dynamics of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We find that increases in investor attention are associated with higher returns, more volatility, and greater illiquidity in cryptocurrency markets. In contrast, cryptocurrency uncertainty (UCRY) and financial market uncertainty (VIX) are also positively related to volatility and illiquidity but have a negative contemporaneous relationship with returns. The identified relationships are accentuated during the COVID-pandemic, and are robust to different measures of investor attention, volatility, and illiquidity. Our results suggest that monitoring investor attention could assist both investors and policymakers.     

Investor attention,aggregate limit-hits,and stock returns

We develop a simple measure of investor attention by aggregating the number of days that a stock hits the upper or lower limit on a monthly basis. This attention proxy describes investor trading behavior and contains information of future stock returns. Using data from the Chinese equity market from 2002 to 2017, we provide extensive evidence that the investor attention captured by our measure negatively predicts cross-sectional stock returns, and the long–short trading strategy based on this attention measure produces significant economic value. We argue that the attention-motivated trading is the main cause behind the return predictability of aggregate limit-hits.     

投资者关注度与股票市场——以PM2.5概念股为例

近年来雾霾成为中国社会的热点话题,而雾霾频发导致PM2.5概念股受到投资者广泛的关注。本文结合现实环境问题,研究投资者通过对环境的关注度继而对与环境相关的股票的影响。具体而言,本文探究投资者对雾霾和PM2.5概念股的关注度对PM2.5概念股的影响。分析发现投资者对雾霾和PM2.5概念股的关注度的增加能拉升PM2.5概念股的股价。投资者对雾霾的关注度和PM2.5概念股的收益率显著正相关。关注度的增加同时也提高PM2.5概念股交易的活跃程度以及PM2.5概念股涨停的可能性。此外,本文发现正面的新闻报道会拉升PM2.5概念股的股价而负面的新闻报道会降低其股价。最后,本文通过讨论内生性和异质性等一系列稳健性检验进一步验证上述结论。     

Attention allocation and international stock return comovement: Evidence from the Bitcoin market

We employ extreme Bitcoin returns as exogenous shock events to investigate the impact of investor attention allocation on worldwide stock return comovement. We find that (1) these shock events decrease worldwide stock return comovement, (2) there is an asymmetric effect in which a crash shock event has a greater impact on return comovement than a jump shock event, and (3) the impact of these shock events on equity comovement is more pronounced in emerging markets. Our results suggest that identifying extreme Bitcoin returns will benefit portfolio construction. Our results may be of considerable interest to investors, as well as to academics interested in portfolio diversification, asset comovement, and cryptocurrencies.     

Sentiment stocks

To study how investor sentiment at the firm level affects stock returns, we match more than 58 million social media messages in China with listed firms and construct a measure of individual stock sentiment based on the tone of those messages. We document that positive investor sentiment predicts higher stock risk-adjusted returns in the very short term followed by price reversals. This association between stock sentiment and stock returns is not explained by observable stock characteristics, unobservable time-invariant characteristics, market-wide sentiment, overreaction to news, or changing investor attention. Consistent with theories of investor sentiment, we find that the link between sentiment and stock returns is mainly driven by positive sentiment and non-professional investors. Finally, exploiting a unique feature of the Chinese stock market, we are able to isolate the causal effect of sentiment on stock returns from confounding factors.     

Effect of twitter investor engagement on cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study aims to examine whether the prices and returns of two cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin and Ethereum, are affected by Twitter engagement following the COVID-19 pandemic. We use the autoregressive integrated moving average with explanatory variables model to integrate the effects of investor attention and engagement on Dogecoin and Ethereum returns using data from December 31, 2020, to May 12, 2021. The results provide evidence supporting the hypothesis of a strong effect of Twitter investor engagement on Dogecoin returns; however, no potential impact is identified for Ethereum. These findings add to the growing evidence regarding the effect of social media on the cryptocurrency market and have useful implications for investors and corporate investment managers concerning investment decisions and trading strategies.     

Is VIX an investor fear gauge in BRIC equity markets?

This study examines the intertemporal relationships between CBOE market volatility index (VIX) and stock market returns in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC), and between VIX and U.S. stock market returns, to uncover if VIX serves as an investor fear gauge in BRIC and U.S. markets. We conduct the VIX-returns analysis for the 1993–2007 period.Our results suggest a strong negative contemporaneous relation between daily changes (innovations) in VIX and U.S. stock market returns. This relation is stronger when VIX is higher and more volatile. A significant negative contemporaneous relation between VIX and equity returns also exists for China and Brazil during 1993–2007 and for India during 1993–1997. Similar to the U.S. market, the immediate negative relation between the Brazilian stock returns and VIX changes is much stronger when VIX is both high and more volatile. Our results also indicate a strong asymmetric relation between innovations in VIX and daily stock market returns in U.S., Brazil, and China, suggesting that VIX is more of a gauge of investor fear than investor positive sentiment. However, the asymmetric relationship between stock market returns and VIX is much weaker when VIX is large and more volatile. These results have potential implications for portfolio diversification and for stock market and option trading timing in the equity markets of Brazil, India, and China. Overall, our results indicate that VIX is not only an investor fear gauge for the U.S. stock market but also for the equity markets of China, Brazil, and India.     

Chinese institutional investors’ sentiment

We use daily survey data on Chinese institutional investors’ forecasts to measure investors’ sentiment. Our empirical model uncovers that share prices and investor sentiment do not have a long-run relation; however, in the short-run, the mood of investors follows a positive-feedback process. Hence, institutional investors are optimistic when previous market returns were positive. Contrarily, negative returns trigger a decline in sentiment, which reacts more sensitively to negative than positive returns. Investor sentiment does not predict future market movements—but a drop in confidence increases market volatility and destabilizes exchanges. EGARCH models reveal asymmetric responses in the volatility of investor sentiment; however, Granger causality tests reject volatility-spillovers between returns and sentiment.     

Investor Trading Behavior and Sentiment in Futures Markets

This study investigates the effects of investor trading behavior and investor sentiment on futures market return. We find that the spot investor trading behavior, futures investor trading behavior, spot market sentiment, and futures market sentiment all have positive effects on daily futures returns in Chinese financial market. More importantly, we show that the effect of (spot) futures investor trading behavior has better explanatory power than (spot) futures market sentiment on futures returns. Further supporting our results, high investor trading behavior and high investor sentiment strengthen the positive relation between sentiment-returns and behavior-returns.     

Asymmetric investor behavior between buyside and sellside: Evidence from investor classes in the Sri Lankan stock market

Using unique trading data for investor classes from Sri Lanka, this study finds asymmetric investor behavior between buyside and sellside in large trades. Investors are positive feedback traders on the buyside and contrarians on the sellside. Domestic investors exhibit more feedback and contrarian behavior than foreign investors, suggesting that foreign investors are more informed on the buyside and less informed on the sellside. Individuals are more feedback and contrarian traders than institutions. Foreign institutional investor sales do not precede, coincide with, or lead to significant returns. Trades do not lead to price momentum or reversals, but leave a permanent positive price effect.