IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/beexfi/v47y2025ics2214635025000632.html

How does the smart money feel? Hedge fund sentiment, returns, and the business cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Yahyaei, Hamid
  • Singh, Abhay
  • Smith, Tom

Abstract

We examine the relationship between the business cycle, sentiment, and the returns of listed U.S. hedge funds. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, we construct a novel measure of hedge fund sentiment by mapping fund-level sentiment scores to hand-collected portfolio manager commentaries. Our empirical analysis shows that business cycle fluctuations exert the strongest influence on hedge fund sentiment, outweighing the effects of geopolitical, trade, and climate policy risks. Moreover, hedge fund sentiment exhibits explanatory power for the cross-section of returns, where a one-unit improvement in sentiment (from neutral to positive) is associated with an average annual return increase of approximately 0.74 percentage points.

Suggested Citation

  • Yahyaei, Hamid & Singh, Abhay & Smith, Tom, 2025. "How does the smart money feel? Hedge fund sentiment, returns, and the business cycle," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:47:y:2025:i:c:s2214635025000632
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2025.101082
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214635025000632
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbef.2025.101082?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kang, Jangkoo & Kim, Tong Suk & Lee, Changjun & Min, Byoung-Kyu, 2011. "Macroeconomic risk and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 3158-3173.
    2. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2007. "Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 129-152, Spring.
    3. Almeida, Caio & Ardison, Kym & Garcia, René, 2020. "Nonparametric assessment of hedge fund performance," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 214(2), pages 349-378.
    4. Dario Caldara & Matteo Iacoviello, 2022. "Measuring Geopolitical Risk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1194-1225, April.
    5. Bali, Turan G. & Brown, Stephen J. & Caglayan, Mustafa O., 2014. "Macroeconomic risk and hedge fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 1-19.
    6. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    7. Kearney, Colm & Liu, Sha, 2014. "Textual sentiment in finance: A survey of methods and models," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 171-185.
    8. Loureiro, Maria L. & Alló, Maria & Coello, Pablo, 2022. "Hot in Twitter: Assessing the emotional impacts of wildfires with sentiment analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    9. Dennis W. Campbell & Ruidi Shang, 2022. "Tone at the Bottom: Measuring Corporate Misconduct Risk from the Text of Employee Reviews," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 7034-7053, September.
    10. Caldara, Dario & Iacoviello, Matteo & Molligo, Patrick & Prestipino, Andrea & Raffo, Andrea, 2020. "The economic effects of trade policy uncertainty," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 38-59.
    11. Diego García, 2013. "Sentiment during Recessions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 1267-1300, June.
    12. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2016. "Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 54(4), pages 1187-1230, September.
    13. Shapiro, Adam Hale & Sudhof, Moritz & Wilson, Daniel J., 2022. "Measuring news sentiment," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 228(2), pages 221-243.
    14. Goutte, Maud-Rose, 2022. "Do actions speak louder than words? Evidence from microblogs," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    15. Bali, Turan G. & Brown, Stephen J. & Caglayan, Mustafa O., 2019. "Upside potential of hedge funds as a predictor of future performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 212-229.
    16. Chen, Yong & Cliff, Michael & Zhao, Haibei, 2017. "Hedge Funds: The Good, the Bad, and the Lucky," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 1081-1109, June.
    17. Bali, Turan G. & Gokcan, Suleyman & Liang, Bing, 2007. "Value at risk and the cross-section of hedge fund returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 1135-1166, April.
    18. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A, 2001. "The Risk in Hedge Fund Strategies: Theory and Evidence from Trend Followers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 313-341.
    19. Bali, Turan G. & Brown, Stephen J. & Caglayan, Mustafa Onur, 2012. "Systematic risk and the cross section of hedge fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 114-131.
    20. Zheng, Yao & Osmer, Eric & Zhang, Ruiyi, 2018. "Sentiment hedging: How hedge funds adjust their exposure to market sentiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 147-160.
    21. Gregory W. Brown & Michael T. Cliff, 2005. "Investor Sentiment and Asset Valuation," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 405-440, March.
    22. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    23. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    24. Yong Chen & Bing Han & Jing Pan, 2021. "Sentiment Trading and Hedge Fund Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 2001-2033, August.
    25. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A, 1997. "Empirical Characteristics of Dynamic Trading Strategies: The Case of Hedge Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(2), pages 275-302.
    26. Kurov, Alexander, 2010. "Investor sentiment and the stock market's reaction to monetary policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 139-149, January.
    27. Price, S. McKay & Doran, James S. & Peterson, David R. & Bliss, Barbara A., 2012. "Earnings conference calls and stock returns: The incremental informativeness of textual tone," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 992-1011.
    28. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A., 1999. "A primer on hedge funds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 309-331, September.
    29. Loughran, Tim & McDonald, Bill, 2013. "IPO first-day returns, offer price revisions, volatility, and form S-1 language," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 307-326.
    30. Steve Y. Yang & Sheung Yin Kevin Mo & Anqi Liu, 2015. "Twitter financial community sentiment and its predictive relationship to stock market movement," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(10), pages 1637-1656, October.
    31. Mark Grinblatt & Gergana Jostova & Lubomir Petrasek & Alexander Philipov, 2020. "Style and Skill: Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds, and Momentum," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5505-5531, December.
    32. Shelby R. Buckman & Adam Hale Shapiro & Moritz Sudhof & Daniel J. Wilson, 2020. "News Sentiment in the Time of COVID-19," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 2020(08), pages 1-05, April.
    33. Apostolos G. Katsafados & Sotirios Nikoloutsopoulos & George N. Leledakis, 2023. "Twitter sentiment and stock market: a COVID-19 analysis," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 50(8), pages 1866-1888, April.
    34. Cao, Charles & Chen, Yong & Liang, Bing & Lo, Andrew W., 2013. "Can hedge funds time market liquidity?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 493-516.
    35. Jerry Hausman, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    36. Paul C. Tetlock, 2007. "Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1139-1168, June.
    37. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:1259-1294 is not listed on IDEAS
    38. Chen, Yong & Liang, Bing, 2007. "Do Market Timing Hedge Funds Time the Market?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(4), pages 827-856, December.
    39. Suardi, Sandy & Rasel, Atiqur Rahman & Liu, Bin, 2022. "On the predictive power of tweet sentiments and attention on bitcoin," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 289-301.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agarwal, Vikas & Ruenzi, Stefan & Weigert, Florian, 2017. "Tail risk in hedge funds: A unique view from portfolio holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 610-636.
    2. Daniele Ballinari & Simon Behrendt, 2021. "How to gauge investor behavior? A comparison of online investor sentiment measures," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 169-204, June.
    3. Bali, Turan G. & Brown, Stephen J. & Caglayan, Mustafa O., 2019. "Upside potential of hedge funds as a predictor of future performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 212-229.
    4. Agarwal, Vikas & Green, T. Clifton & Ren, Honglin, 2018. "Alpha or beta in the eye of the beholder: What drives hedge fund flows?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 417-434.
    5. Bali, Turan G. & Brown, Stephen J. & Caglayan, Mustafa O., 2014. "Macroeconomic risk and hedge fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 1-19.
    6. Agarwal, Vikas & Green, Tracy Clifton & Ren, Honglin, 2017. "Alpha or beta in the eye of the beholder: What drives hedge fund flows?," CFR Working Papers 15-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2017.
    7. Liu, Sha & Han, Jingguang, 2020. "Media tone and expected stock returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Yong Chen & Bing Han & Jing Pan, 2021. "Sentiment Trading and Hedge Fund Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 2001-2033, August.
    9. Vegard Høghaug Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2022. "Asset returns, news topics, and media effects," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 838-868, July.
    10. Renault, Thomas, 2017. "Intraday online investor sentiment and return patterns in the U.S. stock market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 25-40.
    11. Bian, Shibo & Jia, Dekui & Li, Ruihai & Sun, Wujun & Yan, Zhipeng & Zheng, Yingfei, 2021. "Can management tone predict IPO performance? – Evidence from mandatory online roadshows in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Turan G. Bali & Florian Weigert, 2018. "Have Hedge Funds Solved the Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle?," Working Papers on Finance 1827, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    13. Ho, Thang & Kagkadis, Anastasios & Wang, George, 2025. "Bear factor and hedge fund performance," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    14. Panopoulou, Ekaterini & Vrontos, Spyridon, 2015. "Hedge fund return predictability; To combine forecasts or combine information?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 103-122.
    15. Tzomakas, Christos & Anastasiou, Dimitrios & Katsafados, Apostolos & Krokida, Styliani Iris, 2023. "Crisis sentiment and banks’ stock price crash risk: A missing piece of the puzzle?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    16. Katsafados, Apostolos G. & Leledakis, George N. & Panagiotou, Nikolaos P. & Pyrgiotakis, Emmanouil G., 2024. "Can central bankers’ talk predict bank stock returns? A machine learning approach," MPRA Paper 122899, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Bali, Turan G. & Weigert, Florian, 2021. "Hedge funds and the positive idiosyncratic volatility effect," CFR Working Papers 21-01, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    18. Ahmad, Khurshid & Han, JingGuang & Hutson, Elaine & Kearney, Colm & Liu, Sha, 2016. "Media-expressed negative tone and firm-level stock returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 152-172.
    19. Bask, Mikael & Forsberg, Lars & Östling, Andreas, 2024. "Media sentiment and stock returns," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 303-311.
    20. Dimitris Anastasiou & Apostolos Katsafados, 2023. "Bank deposits and textual sentiment: When an European Central Bank president's speech is not just a speech," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 91(1), pages 55-87, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F44 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Business Cycles
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:47:y:2025:i:c:s2214635025000632. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-behavioral-and-experimental-finance .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.