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Facebook Finance: How Social Interaction Propagates Active Investing

Author

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  • Rawley Heimer
  • David Simon

Abstract

This paper shows how active investing strategies propagate through social connections in a network of retail traders, using a new database of social activity linked to individual-level trading records. A trader?s good short-term performance causes them to contact others. A trader?s activity increases when peers perform well and increase communication. We use the staggered entry of brokerages into partnerships with the social networking platform, which is a necessary precursor for traders to access the network, to argue these effects are causal. This pattern of communication supports active trading, even though the network reveals the low success rate of retail traders.

Suggested Citation

  • Rawley Heimer & David Simon, 2015. "Facebook Finance: How Social Interaction Propagates Active Investing," Working Papers (Old Series) 1522, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:1522
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-wp-201522
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    Cited by:

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    2. Brice Corgnet & Camille Cornand & Nobuyuki Hanaki, 2021. "Emotional Markets: Competitive Arousal, Overbidding and Bubbles," Working Papers 2117, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    3. Erol Akçay & David Hirshleifer, 2021. "Social finance as cultural evolution, transmission bias, and market dynamics," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(26), pages 2015568118-, June.
    4. Michael Bailey & Ruiqing Cao & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel, 2016. "Social Networks and Housing Markets," NBER Working Papers 22258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jascha-Alexander Koch & Michael Siering, 2019. "The recipe of successful crowdfunding campaigns," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(4), pages 661-679, December.
    6. Yang Liu & Liyan Han & Libo Yin, 2018. "Does news uncertainty matter for commodity futures markets? Heterogeneity in energy and non‐energy sectors," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(10), pages 1246-1261, October.
    7. Steven Heston & Nitish R. Sinha, 2016. "News versus Sentiment : Predicting Stock Returns from News Stories," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-048, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Rawley Heimer, 2013. "Friends do let friends buy stocks actively," Working Papers (Old Series) 1314, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    9. Brice Corgnet & Camille Cornand & Nobuyuki Hanaki, 2021. "Risk-Taking and Tail Events Across Trading Institutions," Working Papers halshs-03357898, HAL.
    10. Carol Osler & Geir Bjonnes & Neophytos Kathitziotis, 2016. "Bid-Ask Spreads in OTC Markets," Working Papers 102, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    11. Ledenyov, Dimitri O. & Ledenyov, Viktor O., 2015. "Wave function method to forecast foreign currencies exchange rates at ultra high frequency electronic trading in foreign currencies exchange markets," MPRA Paper 67470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. King, Michael R. & Osler, Carol L. & Rime, Dagfinn, 2013. "The market microstructure approach to foreign exchange: Looking back and looking forward," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 95-119.
    13. Carol Osler & Xuhang Wang, 2012. "The Microstructure of Currency Markets," Working Papers 49, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    14. Pelster, Matthias, 2024. "Leverage constraints and investors' choice of underlyings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    15. David Hirshleifer, 2020. "Presidential Address: Social Transmission Bias in Economics and Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 1779-1831, August.
    16. Chiou, Wan-Jiun Paul & Knewtson, Heather S. & Nofsinger, John R., 2019. "Paying attention to social media stocks," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 106-119.
    17. Aristidou, Andreas & Giga, Aleksandar & Lee, Suk & Zapatero, Fernando, 2025. "Aspirational utility and investment behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    18. Rawley Heimer, 2014. "Can Leverage Constraints Help Investors?," Working Papers (Old Series) 1433, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    19. Huang, Shiyang & Hwang, Byoung-Hyoun & Lou, Dong, 2021. "The rate of communication," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 105870, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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    21. Heimer, Rawley Z., 2014. "Friends do let friends buy stocks actively," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PB), pages 527-540.
    22. Huang, Shiyang & Hwang, Byoung-Hyoun & Lou, Dong, 2021. "The rate of communication," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 533-550.
    23. Baghestanian, Sascha & Gortner, Paul J. & van der Weele, Joël J., 2015. "Peer effects and risk sharing in experimental asset markets," SAFE Working Paper Series 67, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2015.
    24. Brice Corgnet & Camille Cornand & Nobuyuki Hanaki, 2021. "Risk-Taking and Tail Events Across Trading Institutions," Working Papers hal-03468913, HAL.
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