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Place your bets? The market consequences of investment advice on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Bradley

    (Department of Finance, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620)

  • Jan Hanousek

    (Department of Finance, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Finance, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic)

  • Russell Jame

    (Gatton College of Business, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40515)

  • Zicheng Xiao

    (Department of Finance, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620)

Abstract

We examine the market consequences of due diligence (DD) reports on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets (WSB) platform. We find average ‘buy’ recommendations result in two-day announcement returns of 1.1%. Further, the returns drift upwards by 2% over the subsequent month and nearly 5% over the subsequent quarter. Retail trading increases sharply in the intraday window following publication, and retail investors are more likely to be net buyers following reports that earn larger returns. Thus, in sharp contrast to regulators concerns that WSB investment advice is harming retail traders, our findings suggest that both WSB posters and users are skilled.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Bradley & Jan Hanousek & Russell Jame & Zicheng Xiao, 2021. "Place your bets? The market consequences of investment advice on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets," MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 2021-76, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:men:wpaper:76_2021
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Tolga Buz & Gerard de Melo, 2021. "Should You Take Investment Advice From WallStreetBets? A Data-Driven Approach," Papers 2105.02728, arXiv.org.
    2. Boris Andreev & Georgios Sermpinis & Charalampos Stasinakis, 2022. "Modelling Financial Markets during Times of Extreme Volatility: Evidence from the GameStop Short Squeeze," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Klein, Tony, 2022. "A note on GameStop, short squeezes, and autodidactic herding: An evolution in financial literacy?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    4. Hasso, Tim & Müller, Daniel & Pelster, Matthias & Warkulat, Sonja, 2022. "Who participated in the GameStop frenzy? Evidence from brokerage accounts," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    5. André Betzer & Jan Philipp Harries, 2022. "How online discussion board activity affects stock trading: the case of GameStop," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 36(4), pages 443-472, December.
    6. Tolga Buz & Gerard de Melo, 2022. "Democratization of Retail Trading: Can Reddit's WallStreetBets Outperform Investment Bank Analysts?," Papers 2301.00170, arXiv.org.
    7. Aloosh, Arash & Choi, Hyung-Eun & Ouzan, Samuel, 2023. "The tail wagging the dog: How do meme stocks affect market efficiency?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 68-78.
    8. Ilaria Gianstefani & Luigi Longo & Massimo Riccaboni, 2022. "The echo chamber effect resounds on financial markets: a social media alert system for meme stocks," Papers 2203.13790, arXiv.org.
    9. Ryan G. Chacon & Thibaut G. Morillon & Ruixiang Wang, 2023. "Will the reddit rebellion take you to the moon? Evidence from WallStreetBets," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, March.
    10. Cookson, J. Anthony & Niessner, Marina & Schiller, Christoph M., 2022. "Can Social Media Inform Corporate Decisions? Evidence from Merger Withdrawals," SocArXiv 56yrj, Center for Open Science.
    11. Suchanek, Max, 2024. "Social interactions in short squeeze scenarios," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 898-919.
    12. Felix Reichenbach & Martin Walther, 2023. "Financial recommendations on Reddit, stock returns and cumulative prospect theory," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 421-448, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Reddit; Wallstreetbets; retail trading; social media;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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