Graduation Year

2022

Date of Submission

12-2021

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Professor Nishant Dass

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

2021 Nandini Jayaram

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between social media sentiments and user activity on the ability of online platforms like Robinhood, Reddit, and Twitter to drive volatility in stock returns and trading volume of shares. The research contributes to the existing literature by studying the potential power of social media communities to influence the stock market parameters. The dataset includes information for several stocks of daily Robinhood users, mentions in r/wallstreetbets, number of Twitter followers, as well as closing price and trading volume data. Using a fixed effects panel data model, the regressions yield statistically significant results that indicate higher WallStreetBets mentions and a larger number of Robinhood users are positively associated with increases in price and total volume, while more Twitter followers are positively associated with lower closing prices. Additionally, regression results show that more Robinhood users are associated with lower stock price volatility, while increased Twitter followers are associated with higher stock price volatility. This paper uniquely studies the impact of investment-related sentiments and user activity across three social media platforms, and offers a new finding that identifies the positive association between Twitter followers and stock price volatility. Future studies can examine a larger portfolio of stocks over a longer time period to establish a stronger relationship between social media signals on stock return volatility and trading volume.

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