Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T22:57:19.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Media Sentiment and Currency Reversals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2023

Ilias Filippou
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis John M. Olin School of Business [email protected]
Mark P. Taylor*
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis John M. Olin School of Business
Zigan Wang
Affiliation:
Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and Shenzhen International Graduate School [email protected]
*
[email protected] (corresponding author)
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Analyzing 48 foreign exchange (FX) rates and 1.2 million FX-related news articles over a 35-year period, using digital textual analysis, we find that a currency reversal investment strategy that buys (sells) currencies with low (high) media sentiment offers strong positive and statistically significant returns and Sharpe ratios. The results are robust and the strategy adds value over other currency premia determinants. Analysts’ forecasts systematically mispredict the reversal strategy. This is the first article to show that price reversals based on media sentiment are a well-defined feature of the FX market.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Footnotes

We thank an anonymous referee and Hendrik Bessembinder (the editor) for constructive and helpful comments on a previous version of the article. We also thank Xiang Fang, Yang Liu, Thomas Maurer, George Panayotov, Lucio Sarno, Qi Xu, and Guofu Zhou for helpful discussions. We thank Yan Li for research assistance.

References

Baker, M., and Wurgler, J.. “Investor Sentiment and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns.” Journal of Finance, 61 (2006), 16451680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, M., and Wurgler, J.. “Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21 (2007), 129152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, M.; Wurgler, J.; and Yuan, Y.. “Global, Local, and Contagious Investor Sentiment.” Journal of Financial Economics, 104 (2012), 272287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barberis, N.; Shleifer, A.; and Vishny, R.. “A Model of Investor Sentiment.” Journal of Financial Economics, 49 (1998), 307343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnside, C.; Eichenbaum, M.; Kleshchelski, I.; and Rebelo, S.. “Do Peso Problems Explain the Returns to the Carry Trade?Review of Financial Studies, 24 (2011), 853891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, J. Y.; Grossman, S. J.; and Wang, J.. “Trading Volume and Serial Correlation in Stock Returns.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108 (1993), 905939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y.; Han, B.; and Pan, J.. “Sentiment Trading and Hedge Fund Returns.” Journal of Finance, 76 (2021), 20012033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, Y.-W.; Fatum, R.; and Yamamoto, Y.. “The Exchange Rate Effects of Macro News after the Global Financial Crisis.” Journal of International Money and Finance, 95 (2019), 424443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, D. M.; Poterba, J. M.; and Summers, L. H.. “Speculative Dynamics.” Review of Economic Studies, 58 (1991), 529546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Long, J. B.; Shleifer, A.; Summers, L. H.; and Waldmann, R. J.. “Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets.” Journal of Political Economy, 98 (1990), 703738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Della Corte, P.; Riddiough, S. J.; and Sarno, L.. “Currency Premia and Global Imbalances.” Review of Financial Studies, 29 (2016), 21612193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dominguez, K. M., and Panthaki, F.. “What Defines ‘News’ in Foreign Exchange Markets?Journal of International Money and Finance, 25 (2006), 168198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fama, E. F.Market Efficiency, Long-Term Returns, and Behavioral Finance.” Journal of Financial Economics, 49 (1998), 283306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fama, E. F., and MacBeth, J. D.. “Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests.” Journal of Political Economy, 81 (1973), 607636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fang, L., and Peress, J.. “Media Coverage and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns.” Journal of Finance, 64 (2009), 20232052.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filippou, I.; Gozluklu, A. E.; Nguyen, M. T.; and Taylor, M. P.. US Populist Rhetoric and Currency Returns. Available at SSRN (2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filippou, I.; Gozluklu, A. E.; Nguyen, M. T.; and Viswanath-Natraj, G.. The Information Content of Trump Tweets and the Currency Market. Available at SSRN 3754991 (2021).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filippou, I.; Gozluklu, A. E.; and Taylor, M. P.. “Global Political Risk and Currency Momentum.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 53 (2018), 22272259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galati, G.Settlement Risk in Foreign Exchange Markets and Cls Bank.” BIS Quarterly Review, 4 (2002), 5565.Google Scholar
Gholampour, V., and van Wincoop, E.. “Exchange Rate Disconnect and Private Information: What Can we Learn from Euro-Dollar Tweets?Journal of International Economics, 119 (2019), 111132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goyal, A., and Saretto, A.. “Cross-Section of Option Returns and Volatility.” Journal of Financial Economics, 94 (2009), 310326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, L.; Li, F. W.; and Wei, K. J.. “Security Analysts and Capital Market Anomalies.” Journal of Financial Economics, 137 (2020), 204230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasbrouck, J., and Levich, R. M.. “FX Market Metrics: New Findings Based on Cls Bank Settlement Data.” NBER Working Paper No. 23206 (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hau, H., and Rey, H.. “Exchange Rates, Equity Prices, and Capital Flows.” Review of Financial Studies, 19 (2006), 273317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, D.; Jiang, F.; Tu, J.; and Zhou, G.. “Investor Sentiment Aligned: A Powerful Predictor of Stock Returns.” Review of Financial Studies, 28 (2015), 791837.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keynes, J. M. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. London, UK: MacMillan (1936).Google Scholar
Kos, D., and Levich, R. M.. Settlement Risk in the Global FX Market: How Much Remains? Available at SSRN 2827530 (2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loughran, T., and McDonald, B.. “When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10-Ks.” Journal of Finance, 66 (2011), 3565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lustig, H.; Roussanov, N.; and Verdelhan, A.. “Common Risk Factors in Currency Markets.” Review of Financial Studies, 24 (2011), 37313777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, R. K. The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rates, Vol. 333. University Park, PA: Citeseer (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menkhoff, L.; Sarno, L.; Schmeling, M.; and Schrimpf, A.. “Currency Momentum Strategies.” Journal of Financial Economics, 106 (2012b), 660684.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newey, W. K., and West, K. D.. “A Simple, Positive Semi-Definite, Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix.” Econometrica, 55 (1987), 703708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. F.An Algorithm for Suffix Stripping.” Program, 14 (1980), 130137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stambaugh, R. F.; Yu, J.; and Yuan, Y.. “The Short of It: Investor Sentiment and Anomalies.” Journal of Financial Economics, 104 (2012), 288302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, M. P.The Economics of Exchange Rates.” Journal of Economic Literature, 33 (1995), 1347.Google Scholar
Tetlock, P. C.Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market.” Journal of Finance, 62 (2007), 11391168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlock, P. C.; Saar-Tsechansky, M.; and Macskassy, S.. “More than Words: Quantifying Language to Measure Firms’ Fundamentals.” Journal of Finance, 63 (2008), 14371467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, J.A Sentiment-Based Explanation of the Forward Premium Puzzle.” Journal of Monetary Economics, 60 (2013), 474491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Filippou et al. supplementary material

Filippou et al. supplementary material

Download Filippou et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 2.1 MB