Mood Effects Dow: Twitter Lets You Play the Stock Market

Um, yay? by Marlon E

Researchers have discovered that tweets can predict the outcome of the stock market, with an accuracy of around 90%.

Johan Bollen, associate professor of informatics at America’s Indiana University discovered the correlation between the Dow Jones Index and the collective mood of the public, via Twitter, 6 days ahead of schedule.

The study analysed more than 9.8 million tweets, from over 2.7 million users, between February and December of 2008.

The researchers picked tweets which described how the user was feeling. These descriptions were then divided into 6 categories of emotion – calm, alert, sure, vital and kind and happy.

OpinionFinder, the online mood-tracking tool, measured whether users felt positive or negative and how sentiment changed over time.

Variations in mood were then measured against the closing stock market values of the Dow Jones Index.

Now, time for me to make my millions via Tweet Deck.

Photo (cc) Marlon E.