Investor network and stock return comovement: Information-seeking through intragroup and intergroup followings

Abstract

Vast amounts of firm-specific information are now available to investors on social media. One primary conduit for investors to seek for these information is through forging following links in their social networks. In particular, intragroup followings spread news of a specific stock while intergroup followings circulate stories of other stocks. Whether this following behavior contributes to information diffusion and further connects to stock return comovement, however, still remains unclear. Here, over a large scale of social network examining investors information-seeking in intragroups and intergroups we show that information-seeking of both kinds is negatively associated with stock return comovement. We further demonstrate that the relationship is pronounced by investors’ experiences but is weaker for larger size stocks. Implications in both theory and management are also discussed.