Abstract:

Human irrationality is seen as the main reason for economic fluctuations by economist Keynes, while mood is one of the key factors leading to irrational behavior. This paper thus aims to examine whether mood can correlate to, even predict stock market fluctuations. Firstly, authors try to explain how the mood of decision-makers and social mood influence financial decision-making by the views of psychology and physiology. Secondly, authors broadly divided the studies on the relationship between mood and stock market from the perspectives of investors’ moods and social mood. Studies from the perspective of investors’ mood mainly construct mood indicators through subjective surveys and objective market indicators. In recent years, however, the social mood studies, especially those based on the Internet and information technology, infuse vigor into the study on the relationship between mood and stock market. The relationship between mood and stock market is far from conclusive, and the internal mechanisms on how mood influences stock market should be explored further. What’s more, information technology and the Internet can play a more and more significant role in the future studies on exploring the relationship between mood and stock market.

Key words: mood, stock market, behavioral finance, social mood, internet, behavioral financial informatics