Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 June 2023
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.
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.