IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/fmktpm/v39y2025i3d10.1007_s11408-025-00469-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The influence of short-term subjective expectations on stock price movements

Author

Listed:
  • Johannes Schmidt

    (University of St. Gallen)

Abstract

This paper examines the role of short-term subjective expectations in asset pricing by analyzing their explanatory power for stock price movements. I use a sample of the Swiss stock market from 2003 to 2022 to compute aggregate measures of subjective expectations. I find a strong positive relationship between subjective growth expectations and future realized growth. Furthermore, I observe that the forecast errors of subjective growth expectations are predictable, which should not be the case in a world of rational expectations. The proportions of variation in the price-dividend, price-earnings, and price-to-cash flow ratio are estimated using a variance decomposition approach. The results indicate that subjective expectations significantly contribute to these variations.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Schmidt, 2025. "The influence of short-term subjective expectations on stock price movements," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 39(3), pages 303-333, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:fmktpm:v:39:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11408-025-00469-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11408-025-00469-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11408-025-00469-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11408-025-00469-6?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefano Giglio & Matteo Maggiori & Johannes Stroebel & Stephen Utkus, 2021. "Five Facts about Beliefs and Portfolios," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(5), pages 1481-1522, May.
    2. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:5:p:1563-1587 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Pedro Bordalo & Nicola Gennaioli & Yueran Ma & Andrei Shleifer, 2020. "Overreaction in Macroeconomic Expectations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2748-2782, September.
    4. Choong‐Yuel Yoo & Jinhan Pae, 2013. "Estimation and Prediction Tests of Cash Flow Forecast Accuracy," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 215-225, April.
    5. David R. Haab & Thomas Nitschka, 2019. "What Goliaths and Davids among Swiss firms tell us about expected returns on Swiss asset markets," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 155(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Cauchie, Severine & Hoesli, Martin & Isakov, Dusan, 2004. "The determinants of stock returns in a small open economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 167-185.
    7. Jin, Lawrence J. & Sui, Pengfei, 2022. "Asset pricing with return extrapolation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 273-295.
    8. Klaus Adam & Albert Marcet & Johannes Beutel, 2017. "Stock Price Booms and Expected Capital Gains," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(8), pages 2352-2408, August.
    9. Campbell, John Y, 1991. "A Variance Decomposition for Stock Returns," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(405), pages 157-179, March.
    10. Robin Greenwood & Andrei Shleifer, 2014. "Expectations of Returns and Expected Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 714-746.
    11. Stefan Nagel & Zhengyang Xu, 2022. "Asset Pricing with Fading Memory," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 2190-2245.
    12. Engsted, Tom & Pedersen, Thomas Q. & Tanggaard, Carsten, 2012. "Pitfalls in VAR based return decompositions: A clarification," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1255-1265.
    13. Long Chen & Xinlei Zhao, 2009. "Return Decomposition," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(12), pages 5213-5249, December.
    14. Thomas Nitschka, 2014. "What News Drive Variation in Swiss and US Bond and Stock Excess Returns?," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 150(II), pages 89-118, June.
    15. Wolfgang Drobetz & Matthias Grüninger, 2007. "Corporate cash holdings: Evidence from Switzerland," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 21(3), pages 293-324, September.
    16. Keith Anderson & Chris Brooks, 2006. "Decomposing the price-earnings ratio," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(6), pages 456-469, March.
    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. Bro, Jeppe & Eriksen, Jonas N., 2025. "Subjective expectations and house prices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    2. Pei Kuang & Li Tang & Renbin Zhang & Tongbin Zhang, 2025. "Are survey stock price forecasts anchored by fundamental forecasts? A long-run perspective," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 79(2), pages 657-685, March.
    3. Anmol Bhandari & Jaroslav Borovička & Paul Ho, 2025. "Survey Data and Subjective Beliefs in Business Cycle Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(3), pages 1375-1437.
    4. Cassella, Stefano & Chen, Te-Feng & Gulen, Huseyin & Liu, Yan, 2025. "Extracting extrapolative beliefs from market prices: An augmented present-value approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Lars A. Lochstoer & Tyler Muir, 2022. "Volatility Expectations and Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 1055-1096, April.
    6. Adam, Klaus & Matveev, Dmitry & Nagel, Stefan, 2021. "Do survey expectations of stock returns reflect risk adjustments?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 723-740.
    7. Lansing, Kevin J., 2024. "Replicating business cycles and asset returns with sentiment and low risk aversion," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    8. Fausch, Jürg & Sigonius, Markus, 2018. "The impact of ECB monetary policy surprises on the German stock market," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 46-63.
    9. Huang, Dashan & Li, Jiangyuan & Wang, Liyao, 2021. "Are disagreements agreeable? Evidence from information aggregation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 83-101.
    10. Li, Kai & Liu, Jun, 2023. "Extrapolative asset pricing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    11. von Gaudecker, Hans-Martin & Wogrolly, Axel, 2022. "Heterogeneity in households’ stock market beliefs," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 232-247.
    12. Magnus Dahlquist & Markus Ibert, 2024. "Equity Return Expectations and Portfolios: Evidence from Large Asset Managers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 37(6), pages 1887-1928.
    13. Klaus Adam & Oliver Pfäuti & Timo Reinelt, 2020. "Falling Natural Rates, Rising Housing Volatility and the Optimal Inflation Target," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_235, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    14. Cenedese, Gino & Mallucci, Enrico, 2016. "What moves international stock and bond markets?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 94-113.
    15. Andries, Marianne & Bianchi, Milo & Huynh, Karen & Pouget, Sebastien, 2024. "Return Predictability, Expectations, and Investment: Experimental Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 19239, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Wu, Ming & Ohk, Kiyool & Ko, Kwangsoo, 2019. "Are cash-flow betas really bad? Evidence from the Greater Chinese stock markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 58-68.
    17. Schmeling, Maik & Schrimpf, Andreas & Steffensen, Sigurd A.M., 2022. "Monetary policy expectation errors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 841-858.
    18. Maio, Paulo & Philip, Dennis, 2015. "Macro variables and the components of stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 287-308.
    19. James Cloyne & Òscar Jordà & Sanjay R. Singh & Alan M. Taylor, 2025. "Asset Prices and Credit with Diagnostic Expectations," Working Paper Series 2025-15, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    20. Ricardo Delao & Sean Myers, 2021. "Subjective Cash Flow and Discount Rate Expectations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(3), pages 1339-1387, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General

    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:kap:fmktpm:v:39:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11408-025-00469-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.