IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/quantf/v25y2025i12p1873-1904.html

Social contagion and asset prices: Reddit's self-organized bull runs

Author

Listed:
  • Valentina Semenova
  • Julian Winkler

Abstract

In recent years, online discussion platforms have amplified the impact of social forces on financial markets. This paper uses text data from Reddit's WallStreetBets (WSB) forum to document that user sentiments about assets' future performances are motivated, in part, by peers. The paper then estimates the effect of WSB activity on asset prices in three ways. We document: higher retail trader demand following WSB discussions, the impact of idiosyncratic investor sentiment in viral content on future asset returns, and the significant activity of WSB users around bubble-like stock price run-ups. Our findings suggests that social media can destabilize financial markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Valentina Semenova & Julian Winkler, 2025. "Social contagion and asset prices: Reddit's self-organized bull runs," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(12), pages 1873-1904, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:quantf:v:25:y:2025:i:12:p:1873-1904
    DOI: 10.1080/14697688.2025.2559970
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14697688.2025.2559970
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14697688.2025.2559970?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.

    More about this item

    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:taf:quantf:v:25:y:2025:i:12:p:1873-1904. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RQUF20 .

    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.