Quantifying Wikipedia Usage Patterns Before Stock Market Moves

Abstract

Financial crises result from a catastrophic combination of actions. Vast stock market datasets offer us a window into some of the actions that have led to these crises. Here, we investigate whether data generated through Internet usage contain traces of attempts to gather information before trading decisions were taken. We present evidence in line with the intriguing suggestion that data on changes in how often financially related Wikipedia pages were viewed may have contained early signs of stock market moves. Our results suggest that online data may allow us to gain new insight into early information gathering stages of decision making.

Keywords: Big Data, Financial Markets, Predictive Analytics, Search Volume, Data Mining, Wikipedia, Computational Social Science, Digital Traces, Dow Jones Industrial Average

JEL Classification: A10, B40, C10, C20, C22, C53, C90, D70, D79, D83, J10, J11, O40, O47