Does the Mad Money Show Cause Investors to Go Madly Attentive?

Abstract

We find that firm mentions/recommendations on the popular Mad Money Show significantly affect institutional and retail investor active attention, proxied by SEC EDGAR queries and posts on Stocktwits. The effects depend on recommendation directions (buy or sell) and a stock’s exposure on the Show. Effects remain after controlling for other firm-specific news and moderating events (e.g., Superbowl and Olympics). The induced investor active attention subsequently affects abnormal trading volumes and short-sales activities of institutional/retail investors, and retail investor portfolios. No abnormal returns are associated with any pre-Show publicity about upcoming guest interviews. Significantly positive (negative) following-day abnormal returns for buy (sell) recommendations become significantly negative (positive) by day 20. Overall, our findings are consistent with the impact of the media and its potential influencers on the limited active attention budgets of investors, the short-term price pressure associated with noise traders, and the shorting of contrarian investors.

Keywords: Institutional/retail investor active attention, Media influencers, Behavioral finance, Trade/holdings/return effects.

JEL Classification: G4, G11, G12, G14, L82