Correlations between Google queries and stock market volumes

This is the result of a joint study in which search engine query data are analyzed by Tobias Preis and Daniel Reith (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany), together with H. Eugene Stanley (Boston University, USA). “We asked the question whether or not there is a link between search volume data and financial market fluctuations on a weekly time scale”, says Preis.

Search engine query data can deliver insight into the behavior of individuals who are submitting several hundred million search engine queries around the day each day. Aggregated query data provided by Google cover the time period from 2004 to present and are available for scientific use.

“Both collective 'swarm intelligence' of internet users and financial market participants can be regarded as a complex system of many interacting subunits that react quickly to external changes”, explains Preis.

The authors find clear evidence that weekly transaction volumes of S&P 500 companies are correlated with weekly search volumes of corresponding company names. Thus, increasing transaction volumes coincide with an increasing number of search queries for the corresponding company name. However, stock price variations and changes of company's search volume show no significant correlation. The authors verify this effect for individual stocks as well as for the S&P 500 on an aggregated level. “Thus, search volume data seems to coincide with the attractiveness of trading a stock”, says Reith. The authors highlight that their finding can be of crucial importance for a deeper understanding of financial markets' complexity.

The study is published in the latest issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

Reference:
Tobias Preis, Daniel Reith, and H. Eugene Stanley,
“Complex dynamics of our economic life on different scales: insights from search engine query data”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 368, 5707-5720

DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2010.0284

Media Contact

Petra Giegerich idw

More Information:

http://www.tobiaspreis.de/

All latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy

This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.

innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Innovative 3D printed scaffolds offer new hope for bone healing

Researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia have developed novel 3D printed PLA-CaP scaffolds that promote blood vessel formation, ensuring better healing and regeneration of bone tissue. Bone is…

The surprising role of gut infection in Alzheimer’s disease

ASU- and Banner Alzheimer’s Institute-led study implicates link between a common virus and the disease, which travels from the gut to the brain and may be a target for antiviral…

Molecular gardening: New enzymes discovered for protein modification pruning

How deubiquitinases USP53 and USP54 cleave long polyubiquitin chains and how the former is linked to liver disease in children. Deubiquitinases (DUBs) are enzymes used by cells to trim protein…