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The purpose of this paper is to study a novel and direct measurement of investor sentiment index in the Tunisian stock market that overcomes the weaknesses of a well-known investor sentiment index by Baker and Wurgler (2006, 2007).

Based on the data of 43 firms of the Tunisian stock market index (Tunindex) over the period 2004–2016, the author constructs a monthly investor sentiment that reflects both the economic fundamentals and the investor sentiment components. Seven indirect indicators collected from investor sentiment literature and Tunisian stock exchange were analyzed. Specifically, after accounting to remove the sentiment component for macroeconomic factors, the author estimates each sentiment proxy with a number of controlling variables. The residual from the estimation is used to define the author’s measure of excessive investor sentiment. To determine the best timing of sentiment indicators, the author employs a factor sentiment series as the first principal component of these total seven sentiment proxies and their lags of a month. Furthermore, by capturing the highest saturations with the first factor analysis, the author regressed each selected indicator’s lead or one-month lag in a second linear principal component analysis to reach the author’s Tunisian market’s total sentiment index.

The results show that all employed indicators may reflect the investor sentiment on the Tunisian stock market. The findings also indicate significant evidence that the author’s sentiment index takes into consideration the political and economic events such as the Jasmine Revolution experienced by Tunisia during the period from January 2, 2004 to December 30, 2016. Moreover, investor sentiment index flow appears to be one leading mechanism for the performance of Tunindex.

Results found have clearly shown that the author’s seven indirect indicators can reflect investor sentiment in the Tunisian context. The various sentiment proxies are bullish indicators of investor sentiment. Brown and Cliff (2004) argue that the higher bull/bear ratio, the more investor sentiment is bullish. An important value of price–earnings ratio implies that the level of investor confidence as for change in market is also important. Liquidity measured by trading volume, market turnover ratio and liquidity ratio reflects individual investor sentiment. Otherwise, it seems that investors only invest when they are optimistic and reduce market liquidity once they became pessimistic. The monthly response rate to initial public offerings (IPOs) represents a bullish sentiment indicator. Indeed, the more optimistic investors are, the higher the response rate to IPOs. Investor satisfaction also reflects investor sentiment. In other words, a high level of satisfaction translates an important level of optimism. In addition, the author also recognizes that the authors’ Tunisian sentiment index follow general trend of stock market prices and appears to be an important determinant of Tunindex returns during the period of study, from January, 2004 to December, 2016. The author suggests investor sentiment can help predict Tunindex returns, distinguishing between turbulent and tranquil periods in the financial market. The graphical illustration of monthly investor sentiment index shows that it captures extreme events such as the Tunisian revolution of January, 2011, also known as the Jasmine revolution which marked the start of the Arab Spring and the consequences of economic and political turmoil in Tunisia that have disrupted economic activity in the next few years. Like all research work, the current research paper has certain limitations. The choice of control variables allowing the author to separate sentiment component of that fundamental might be criticized. Moreover, there is no unanimous number of control variables but they are chosen according to data availability. The author also believes that one of the study’s weaknesses is that the author has not examined the impact of investor sentiment on the Tunisian stock market. For future interesting avenues of research, the author proposes, first, to study the effect of investor sentiment on financial asset returns and check, second, if sentiment factor constitutes an additional source of business risk valued by the marketplace.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pricing implication of aggregate market wide investor sentiment risk for cross sectional return variation in the presence of other market wide risk factors.

The paper employs the Fama and French time series regression approach to examine the impact of market risk premium, size, book‐to‐market equity, momentum and liquidity as risk factors on stock return. Given the importance of inherent imperfect rationality or sentiment risk, the paper further investigates the impact of investor sentiment on the cross section of stock return.

The choice of a five factor model is apparently persuasive for consideration in investment decisions. Stocks are hard to value and difficult to arbitrage with characteristics which are significantly influenced with the sentiment risk. It is naïve to argue for the universal pricing implication of sentiment risk in a multifactor model framework.

The test assets portfolios are not segregated as per any industry criteria.

Investment managers can use a contrarian investment strategy, for the stocks that are hard to value and riskier to arbitrage to gain excess return when the market follows a downward trend.

This makes the first attempt towards the investigation of the impact of the sentiment risk on cross sectional return variation from an emerging market perspective on such a diversified and large test asset portfolios. The paper has extended the available literature by investigating the impact of sentiment risk after controlling the liquidity risk factor in a multifactor specification. This measure of market wide irrational sentiment index is more comprehensive.

This study creates a measure of investor sentiment directly from retail trader activity to identify misvaluation and to examine the link between sentiment and subsequent returns.

Using investor reports from a large discount brokerage that include measures of activity such as net buying, net new accounts and net new assets, this study creates a measure of retail trader sentiment using principal components. This study examines the relation between sentiment and returns through conditional mean and regression analyses.

Retail sentiment activity coincides with aggregate Google Trends search data and firms with the greatest sensitivity to retail sentiment tend to be small, young and volatile. Periods of high retail sentiment precede poor subsequent market returns. Cross-sectional results detail the strongest impact on subsequent returns within difficult to value or difficult to arbitrage firms.

This study links a rich measure of retail trader activity to subsequent market and cross-sectional returns. These results deepen our understanding of noise trader risk and aggregate investor sentiment.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of Indian investor sentiments on contemporaneous stock returns of Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and various sectoral indices in India by developing a sentiment index.

The study uses principal component analysis to develop a sentiment index as a proxy for Indian stock market sentiments over a time frame from April 1996 to January 2017. It uses an exploratory approach to identify relevant proxies in building a sentiment index using indirect market measures and macro variables of Indian and US markets.

The study finds that there is a significant positive correlation between the sentiment index and stock index returns. Sectors which are more dependent on institutional fund flows show a significant impact of the change in sentiments on their respective sectoral indices.

The study has used data at a monthly frequency. Analysing higher frequency data can explain short-term temporal dynamics between sentiments and returns better. Further studies can be done to explore whether sentiments can be used to predict stock returns.

The results imply that one can develop profitable trading strategies by investing in sectors like metals and capital goods, which are more susceptible to generate positive returns when the sentiment index is high.

The study supplements the existing literature on the impact of investor sentiments on contemporaneous stock returns in the context of a developing market. It identifies relevant proxies of investor sentiments for the Indian stock market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of investor sentiment on share returns, exploring whether this effect is different for public family and non-family firms.

The author uses the European Economic Sentiment Indicator data, from Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs as a proxy for investor sentiment and focused on the share returns of family and non-family firms, using panel data methodology.

Using data from listed family and non-family firms for the period between 1999 and 2011, in accordance with behavioural finance theory, the results indicate that there is a negative relationship between sentiment and share returns. In addition, the author found no difference between family and non-family firms in what concerns the effect of sentiment on share returns. The evidence also suggests that young, large and medium growth firms are most affected by sentiment. Finally, the results suggest that the evidence concerning the relationship between sentiment and returns is sensitive to the proxy used to measure the sentiment.

A limitation of this study is the small size of the sample, which is due to the small size of the Portuguese stock market, the Euronext Lisbon.

This paper offers some insights into the effect of investor sentiment on the share returns in the context of public family firms, a strand of finance that is scarcely developed. It also contributes to the analysis of a small European country, with a high concentration of equity ownership.

El propósito de este trabajo es examinar el efecto de la confianza de los inversores en las acciones devoluciones, explorando si este efecto es diferente para las empresas familiares públicas y no familiares.

Utilizamos los datos de los indicadores de sentimiento económico de Europa, de la Dirección General de Asuntos Económicos y Financieros (DG ECFIN) como sustituto de la confianza de los inversores y se centran en la cuota de los retornos de las empresas familiares y no familiares, utilizando datos de panel metodología.

El uso de los datos de las empresas que figuran familiares y no familiares para el período entre 1999 y 2011, los resultados indican que no existe una relación entre el sentimiento y la cuota de retorno, que está de acuerdo con la teoría financiera estándar, que predice que los precios de las acciones reflejan el descuento valor de los flujos de caja esperados y que la irracionalidad de los inversores se eliminan por árbitros. Además, no encontramos ninguna diferencia entre las empresas familiares y no familiares en lo que se refiere al efecto de la confianza en las acciones devoluciones. Por último, la evidencia sugiere que las grandes empresas y las empresas que pagan dividendos son los más afectados por el sentimiento.

Una limitación de este estudio es el pequeño tamaño de la muestra, que se deriva del pequeño tamaño del mercado de valores portugués, la Euronext Lisbon.

Este artículo ofrece algunas ideas sobre el efecto de la confianza de los inversores en la cuota de rentabilidad en el contexto de las empresas familiares públicos, un mechón de financiación que apenas se desarrolla, y contribuye al análisis de un pequeño país europeo, con alta concentración de participación en el capital.

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the literature focusing on defining and measuring sentiments so as to understand their role in stock market behavior.

Critical review of the literature by analyzing myriad scholarly articles. The study is based on an analysis of 81 scholarly articles to critically analyze the approach toward defining and measuring market sentiments. The articles have been examined to identify and critique different classification of sentiment measures. A discussion is built to scrutinize the sentiment measures under the purview of theoretical underpinnings of the investor sentiment theory as well.

With more than five decades of research, the sentiment construct in finance literature is still ill-defined. Myriad empirical proxies of sentiment measures have led to conflicting results. The sentiment construct defined in financial theories needs to be revisited from the lens of sentiments defined in psychology.

The study is limited to analyzing the role of individual and institutional sentiments in equity markets. There is a need to explore sentiments with respect to different investment styles and strategies along with the type of investors.

Developing a suitable sentiment proxy can result in devising profitable trading strategies for investors. Understanding factors driving investor sentiments will help regulators to become more proactive and frame better policies.

This paper has leveraged psychology literature to highlight the limitations in development of sentiment construct in finance literature. By identifying stylized facts from reviewing the empirical literature, it highlights areas for future research.

Although the pervasive influence of investor sentiment in equity markets is well documented, little is known about behavioral manifestations in bond markets. In this paper, we explore the impact of investor sentiment on corporate bond yield spreads. Our results reveal that bond yield spreads co‐vary with sentiment, and sentiment‐drivenmispricings and systematic reversal trends are very similar to those for stocks. Bonds appear underpriced (with high yields) during pessimistic periods and overpriced (with low yields) when optimism reigns. Consequent reversals result in predictable trends in post‐sentiment yield spreads.When beginning‐of‐period sentiment is low, subsequent yield spreads are low; high sentiment periods are followed by high spreads. High‐yield bonds (low ratings, Industrials and Utilities, extreme maturities or low durations, specially if low rated) demonstrate greater susceptibility to mispricings due to sentiment compared to low‐yield bonds. The incremental yield spread gap between highand low‐yield bonds converges subsequent to periods of low sentiment, and diverges after high sentiment. Equity attributes marginally influence the impact of sentiment on bond spreads, but mostly for distressed bonds only.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of firm-specific investor sentiment on Brazilian companies’ accrual-based earnings management between 2010 and 2018. The paper aims to bring deeper insight into the relationship between the investor expectations and managers’ decision-making in an emerging market.

The authors use the quantitative approach and apply a multiple linear regression model to test the relationship among the abnormal accruals, the firm-specific investor sentiment index and the control variables. The final sample includes data from 175 companies, between 2010 and 2018.

These results reveal a negative association between firm-specific investor sentiment and accrual-based earnings management, which could mean that the risk propensity of managers to manipulate earnings increases when they face known losses in the capital market.

The research findings provide a valuable understanding of how emerging capital market expectations can influence managerial decisions, such as accrual-based earnings management. The geographical area of study was limited to only Brazil.

Previous studies on developed markets show that market-wide investor sentiment positively influences accrual-based earnings management. However, the present study shows that the firm-specific investor sentiment index has a significant and negative relationship with Brazilian companies’ earnings manipulation, whereas market sentiment indicates contradictory relationship in previous studies in the country.

El propósito de este estudio es investigar la influencia del sentimiento de los inversionistas a nivel de empresa en la manipulación contable de las empresas brasileñas entre 2010 y 2018. El documento pretende aportar una visión más profunda sobre la relación entre las expectativas de los inversores y la toma de decisiones de los gestores en un mercado emergente.

usamos el enfoque cuantitativo y aplicamos un modelo de regresión lineal múltiple para probar la relación entre las acumulaciones anormales, el índice de sentimiento de los inversores a nivel de empresa y las variables de control. La muestra final incluye datos de 175 empresas, entre 2010 y 2018.

Los resultados revelan una asociación negativa entre el sentimiento de los inversores a nivel de empresa y la manipulación contable basada em acumulaciones, lo que podría significar que la propensión al riesgo de los administradores a manipular las ganancias aumenta cuando enfrentan pérdidas conocidas en el mercado de capitales.

los resultados de la investigación proporcionan una valiosa comprensión de cómo las expectativas de los mercados de capitales emergentes pueden influir en las decisiones de gestión, como la manipulación contable basada en acumulaciones. El área geográfica de estudio se limitó únicamente a Brasil y, en consecuencia, los hallazgos y conclusiones del estudio tuvieron sus límites.

estudios anteriores sobre mercados desarrollados muestran que el sentimiento de los inversores a nivel de mercado influye positivamente en la manipulación contable. Sin embargo, el presente estudio muestra que el índice de sentimiento de los inversores a nivel de empresa tiene una relación significativa y negativa con la manipulación de las ganancias de las empresas brasileñas, mientras que el sentimiento del mercado indica una relación contradictoria en estudios anteriores en el país.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of investor sentiment (ISENT) on the market reaction to dividend change announcements.

The author used the European Economic Sentiment Indicator data, from Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs, as a proxy for ISENT and focus on the market reaction to dividend change announcements, using panel data methodology.

Using data from three European markets, the results indicate that ISENT has some influence on the market reaction to dividend change announcements, for two of the three analysed markets. Globally, no evidence was found of ISENT influencing the market reaction to dividend change announcements for the Portuguese market. However, evidence was found that the positive share price reaction to dividend increases enlarges with sentiment, in the case of the UK markets, whereas the negative share price reaction to dividend decreases reduces with sentiment, in the French market.

The author had no access to dividend forecasts, so, the findings are based on naïve dividend changes and not unexpected change dividends.

This paper offers some insights on the effect of ISENT on the market reaction to firms' news, a strand of finance that is scarcely developed and contributes to the analysis of European markets that are in need of research. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the effect of ISENT on the market reaction to dividend news, in the context of European markets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether sentiment and mood, which are distinct theoretical concepts, can also be distinguished empirically.

Using a sample of German small-cap stocks and linear techniques, the effect of sentiment and mood on short-term abnormal stock return following earnings announcements is tested separately.

Mood tends to be a positive factor in predicting short-term abnormal stock return, as its biologically based impact uniformly affects the risk aversion of all market participants. Notably, negative mood influences stock return significantly negatively. Sentiment is no factor, however, as its cognitively based impact affects only unsophisticated investors, namely, their cash-flow expectations.

As the sample is restricted to small-cap stocks from a single stock market and only two proxies of sentiment and mood, respectively, are used, the findings should be generalized with caution. Future research might investigate other markets and employ different proxies of sentiment and mood.

Market participants should be aware of the different effect of sentiment and mood on stock return and adjust investment strategies accordingly.

As sophisticated investors are likely to profit from the irrational behavior of unsophisticated investors, who are prone to sentiment, the financial literacy of retail investors should be enhanced.

This paper is unique in distinguishing between sentiment and mood, both theoretically and empirically. Such distinction was largely ignored by related past research.