Google’s my friend.
Not only do I rely upon it for email, video, and of course, search, but I’m using it to invest better and smarter (the Tradestreaming way, right?).
Let me explain:
One of my first podcasts on Tradestreaming Radio was with finance professor, Joey Engelberg. In How to use Google search data to invest, I asked Engelberg about a paper he had recently published that showed how useful Google could be in forecasting stock prices.
Using Google Search Data to Invest by tradestreaming
Specifically, Engelberg noticed:
- Google search volume likely measures the attention of retail investors
- and does so in a more timely fashion that existing proxies of investor attention
And of course, stock prices tend to follow attention.
So, an increase in Google search frequency (SVI) predicts higher prices in the next two weeks and also contributes to a large first-day return (and long-run underperformance) of IPO stocks.
Awesome stuff and after we spoke, Joey kind of went underground (he did leave UNC and headed for UCSD), using his research to make coin at a hedge fund. I spent a whole chapter in Tradestreaming (my book) describing co-lateral research — stuff that’s inherently non-financial in nature (Google search, Amazon ratings, etc) to help us make better investing choices.
Now a new paper shines light on how Google search reflects investor information demand and what that means for earnings news.
Continue reading “Using Google to forecast an earnings pop (or plunk)”