Trading on Twitter: The Financial Information Content of Emotion in Social Media

Abstract

We collected data from Twitter posts about firms in the S&P 500 and analyzed their cumulative emotional valence (i.e., whether the posts contained an overall positive or negative emotional sentiment). We compared this to the average daily stock market returns of firms in the S&P 500. Our results show that the cumulative emotional valence (positive or negative) of Twitter tweets about a specific firm was significantly related to that firm's stock returns. The emotional valence of tweets from users with many followers (more than the median) had a stronger impact on same day returns, as emotion was quickly disseminated and incorporated into stock prices. In contrast, the emotional valence of tweets from users with few followers had a stronger impact on future stock returns (10-day returns).