Many successful traders analyse sentiment to help them gain an advantage in their trading. Allowing a machine to read a story has two principle advantages, one being speed and the other being ‘Infobesity’- the ability to read large volumes of text in the blink of an eye.
Speed
In it’s most basic form traders will react quickly to unexpected news releases that have been interpreted by machine. An example might be a newsflash of an earthquake in New Zealand, a machine can interpret the story and may then automatically short the NZD/USD by understanding the extreme negative sentiment in the story. Some traders spend millions of dollars to receive economic data within nano seconds of their release, so they can be first to trade the markets.
Volume
In a slightly more complicated manner a trader may take all economic news coming out of the USA and the EUROZONE and measure how the sentiment in the news is changing from day to day. The advantage of using computers here is that machines eliminate the bias inherent in human decision-making. A trader can use this accumulating sentiment data to trade on currency pairs or predict economic data coming out. Granted the second example would need a slightly more in depth experiment in Machine learning.Imagine if all farmers used a social messaging tool called “Whats Farmer”, to talk about all things related to farming. If we digitally filtered all the stories pertaining to harvest and soya beans, we could get a very accurate consensus of opinions on future harvest figures, and forwarding looking Soya contracts.
The Mood of the market
Another interesting method of using sentiment with economic data, is not to try and predict economic data, but understand what everyone feels towards economic data. In the run up to a data release we could measure the sentiment expressed in news and social media written about Non Farm Payroll. Presumably journalists and traders would be expressing their views in relation to forecasted consensus figures.When NFP figures came out beyond expectations, a trader might be poised to sell EUR/USD. However if he felt the market was upbeat prior to the release, he could well judge the above-expected figures were already written into the price.
Social Media as an Economic data point
Finally some traders can use social media as an economic data point in itself. Sometimes to move ahead of the market and other times to shine some light on markets where economic data is not so trustworthy.If we took a feed of data from Facebook, and searched for mentions of house purchases in and around London, we could gain an accurate insight into the trend of house buying in London. In a similar fashion if we monitored everyone in Beijing who was celebrating a new job on Chinese social media, we could access an unbiased source of jobs creation data.
These are all theoretical examples, but in most live examples traders combine sentiment with other data sets, to gain an even more nuanced understanding of the market. What is certain is that machines intelligence is only set to increase, and traders need to learn how to take advantage of this revolution in machine understanding.
Data and information provided by Acuity Trading Limited is not intended to give advice or recommendation of potential investments and it is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision. Information and opinions presented have been obtained or derived from sources believed by Acuity Trading Limited to be reliable, but Acuity Trading Limited makes no representation as to their accuracy or completeness. Acuity Trading Limited accepts no liability for loss arising from the use of this data and information. The information and opinions contained are for background purposes only and do not purport to be full or complete. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information or opinions provided or their accuracy or completeness. Any forecasts contained herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not to be relied upon as advice or interpreted as a recommendation. Past performance or experience does not necessarily give a guide for the future. References to future returns are not promises or even estimates of actual returns an investor may achieve.
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Editors’ Picks
AUD/USD stays defensive below 0.6500 ahead of Fed
AUD/USD is on the back foot below 0.6500, consolidating the previous decline early Wednesday. China's holiday-led thin conditions and pre-Fed policy decision caution trading leave Aussie traders on the edge.
USD/JPY holds higher ground near 158.00, Fed in focus
USD/JPY holds the rebound near 158.00 in Asian trading on Wednesday. The US Dollar remains on the bid amid a risk-off market environment, underpinning the major. The interest rate differential between Japan and the US is likely to maintain a bullish pressure on the pair ahead of the Fed decision.
Gold pullbacks on rising US yields, buoyant US Dollar as inflation heats up
Gold prices drop below the $2,300 threshold on Tuesday as data from the United States show that employment costs are rising, thus putting upward pressure on inflation. XAU/USD trades at $2,296 amid rising US Treasury bond yields and a stronger US Dollar.
Bitcoin price dips into $60K range as spot traders flock to Coinbase Lightning Network
Bitcoin price slid lower on Tuesday during the opening hours of the New York session, dipping its toes into a crucial chart area. It comes as markets continue to digest the performance of Hong exchange-traded funds after their first day of issuance.
Federal Reserve meeting preview: The stock market expects the worst
US stocks are a sea of red on Tuesday as a mixture of fundamental data and jitters ahead of the Fed meeting knock risk sentiment. The economic backdrop to this meeting is not ideal for stock market bulls.
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