Contagion of Narratives: An Example of the WallStreetBets Saga
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2021-09-02
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en
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This master thesis in financial economics shows how narratives start and spread on the popular investor forum reddit.com/r/WallStreetBets and how these comments affect stock returns. Based on analysis of the content of over 18 million comments placed on the subreddit, it has become evident that the ‘anti-hedge fund’ narrative started in comments related to GameStop ($gme). During December 2020 the narrative spread to comments related to other stocks. In total 60 different stock tickers are analyzed in three groups. These groups are based on meme, random and high market cap stocks. The ‘anti-hedge fund’ narrative in $gme comments spread between all three groups, but is only a significant predictor for the spread in meme stocks. There is also some evidence that the appearance of the narrative and the number of comments is positively indicative for the abnormal stock returns in meme stocks, but this relationship is not significant. Further analysis is needed to be able to definitely conclude on this relationship.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen