About
I am a visiting assistant professor from Sam M. Walton Business Colledge, University of Arkansas. My research broadly focuses on investment and corporate finance. I am interested in impact of harnessing advanced financial technology and big data in financial market, corporations and financial intermediaries, and the application of machine learning and AI in Finance. Currentlly, I am focusing on developing measures of beliefs with applications to asset pricing and behavioral economics.
Research Activities
My research has been published in Review of Financial Studies and has been presented at pretigious conference, such as the FMA annual meeting, Asia/Pacific FMA, FARS, Texas A&M Young Scholars Conference, Southern Finance Association annul meeting, Asia/Pacific FMA, Florida Finance Conference et al. It also has been featured on Bloomberg, Epoch Times,and Money.com et al.
Education
- Ph.D. in Finance (Support Major: Information Systems), University of South Florida, 2024
- M.S. in Business Analytics & Information Systems, University of South Florida, 2019
- M.S. in Finance (Minor: Business Analytics & Information Systems), University of South Florida, 2018
- B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, 2014
Academic Experience
Visiting Assistant Professor
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Aug 2024 - Present
- Duties include teaching FINN36003 Corporate Finance (3 Sections).
- Supervisor: Alexey Malakhov
Instructor
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Jan 2022 - Aug 2024
- Duties include teaching undergraduate students in various subjects:
- Supervisor: Jared Williams
Publications
Place Your Bets? The Market Consequences of Investment Research on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets. with Daniel Bradley, Jan Hanousek, Russell Jame, Published in The Reviews of Financial Studies, 2024 (Editors’ Choice)
We examine the value of due diligence recommendations on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets (WSB) platform. Before the Gamestop (GME) short squeeze, recommendations are significant predictors of returns and cash-flow news. This predictability is eliminated post-GME. Post-GME, the fraction of reports emphasizing price-pressure or attention-grabbing stocks dramatically increases, and the decline in informativeness is concentrated in these reports. Similarly, retail trade informativeness is particularly strong following DD reports in the pre-GME period, but not post-GME. Our findings are consistent with the view that the Gamestop event altered the culture of WSB, leading to a deterioration in investment quality that adversely affected smaller investors.
Working Papers
Measuring Information Quality by Topic Attention Divergence: Evidence from Earnings Calls, 2024, with Jared Williams, and Tengfei Zhang
Leveraging computational linguistics and 20 million turns of dialogues from earnings conference calls from 2006- 2022, I introduce a novel measure that quantifies the disparity in narrative focus between managers’ disclosures and analysts’ questions during these calls, denoted as Topic Attention Divergence (TAD). A higher level of TAD indicates a higher level of firm-investor asymmetry and lower information quality. My results confirm that higher TAD in earnings conference calls inversely (positively) predict firms’ future stock liquidity (cost of equity capital). Further, the predictive power of TAD is more pronounced in firms with higher information processing costs characterized by smaller firm size, lower levels of analyst coverage, and lower institutional ownership. A long-short portfolio sorted by TAD earns an annual 8.18% risk-adjusted return and cannot be explained by existing factor models.
Does A Firm Pay For Being Different? Firms’ Unique Information Environment And Information Processing Cost, 2024
This study introduces Topic Attention Divergence (TAD2), a measure derived from earnings call transcripts that compares a firm's narrative focus to its industry average. Higher TAD2 indicates greater uncertainty in a firm's information environment, which is associated with lower stock liquidity, increased investor disagreement, and higher cost of equity capital. The impact of TAD2 is stronger in firms with lower institutional ownership and industry competition. Additionally, analysts tend to overestimate future earnings when firms emphasize unique information, supporting the bounded rationality hypothesis. The paper is available upon request.
Do Institutional Investors Reshape Innovation Effort? Evidence From China, 2021 with Tianjiao Yu
This paper explores a possible underlying mechanism through which institutional investors affect firm innovation—innovation depth and scope. Innovation depth is X and innovation scope is Y. Institutional investors positively impact depth, but negatively impact scope. I find that depth (scope) positively (negatively) impact patent quality. Using a quasi-natural experiment, I show that innovation scope can increase innovation resilience when a high supplier concentration firm suffers from supply chain disruption. This paper sheds new light on the role of innovation efforts in the innovation process.
Does It Pay to Follow Investment Advice on YouTube?, 2020
I examine the skill of non-professional analysts (NPAs) that make stock recommendations on Youtube.com, the largest global video-sharing platform. By extracting text from video and identifying top influencers' buy and sell recommendations on the platform, I find some evidence of investment value. On average, NPAs generate large, but insignificant positive abnormal returns. However, there is significant dispersion. Upon further analysis, I find that 70% of influencers indeed generate Alpha. Exploiting this dispersion, I construct two hedge portfolios that consistently generate positive abnormal returns over the full sample period. Overall, despite regulators concerns over non-professionals providing investment advice, my results suggest this fear is unfounded.
Working in Progress
Do Local Newspaper Closures Lead to IPO Underpricing?, 2024, with Shaddy Douidar, Serhat Yildiz, and Joseph Halford
Preliminary Results Obtained
Does Analysts’ Attention Matter? Evidence From Questions in Earnings Conference Calls, 2024, with Daniel Bradley
This paper investigates whether analysts' attention during earnings conference calls predicts firm outcomes. By examining the types and focus of questions posed by analysts, I assess how shifts in their attention across firms within their coverage in the same quarter generate signals that impact firm performance and market reactions. The findings offer new insights into the role of analysts' engagement in corporate communication and its predictive value for firm performance.
How Does the Innovation Strategy impact Company Performance?, 2024, with Jared Williams and Daneels Erwin
This study examines unique survey dataset from management teams of over 270 public firms to evaluate how exploitative and exploratory innovation strategies impact company performance.
Dissecting Retail Investors’ Belief Formation Using Machine Learning: Evidence from Reddit, 2024 with Vivian Fang, and Tengfei Zhang
This study examines how crypto narratives influence retail investors' beliefs and their effects on cryptocurrency returns and liquidity. It tests theories on extrapolative beliefs and excess volatility, using machine learning to analyze Reddit posts. The research highlights the role of biased beliefs in shaping market outcomes. Originally titled, 'How Do Narratives Update Investors' Beliefs? Evidence from Reddit.'
Talks
When Crowds Aren’t Wise: Social Media, Noise Trading, and Price Efficiency, by Edna Lopez Avila, Charles Martineau, and Jordi Mondria
Scheduled to Discuss at Financial Management Association Annual Meeting 2024 Conference, Grapevine, TX
Measuring Information Quality by Topic Attention Divergence: Evidence from Earnings Calls
Scheduled to Present at Financial Management Association Annual Meeting 2024 Conference, Grapevine, TX
AI-Powered Trading, Algorithmic Collusion, and Price Efficiency.
Discussed at Florida Finance Conference, Seoul, Korea
Measuring Information Quality by Topic Attention Divergence: Evidence from Earnings Calls.
Presented at Pacific/Asia FMA 2024 Conference, Seoul, Korea
Measuring Information Quality by Topic Attention Divergence: Evidence from Earnings Calls
Presented at FMA Annual Meeting 2023 Conference New Idea Session, Chicago, IL
Measuring Information Quality by Topic Attention Divergence: Evidence from Earnings Calls.
Presented at Florida Finance Conference, Miami, FL
Place Your Bets? The Market Consequences of Investment Research on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets. with Daniel Bradley, Jan Hanousek, Russell Jame
Presented at Financial Management Association Annual Meeting, Altlanta, GA
Trading Ahead of the Disclosure: Cybersecurity Breaches. by Svetlana Petrova and Andy Naranjo
Discussed at Financial Management Association Annual Meeting, Altlanta, GA
Does Main Street Benefit from What Benefits Wall Street? by Andra Ghent and Sean J. Flynn, Jr.
Discussed at Southern Finance Conference Annual Meeting, Key West, FL
Teaching
Skills
- Problem Solving: Strong analytical and critical thinking abilities to tackle complex issues.
- Coding:
- Python: Proficient in data analysis, scripting, and automation.
- Stata: Experienced in statistical analysis and econometrics.
- C++: Skilled in object-oriented programming and algorithm development.
- Cloud Computing with Big Data: Hands-on experience with cloud platforms and big data technologies.
- Machine Learning/Deep Learning: Knowledgeable in building and deploying machine learning models.
Research Assistant
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Jan 2019 - Dec 2021
- Duties included using RPA and Scrapy techniques to collect analysts’ conference activities from “thefly.com”. The work was published in the Journal of Finance in 2022.
- Supervisor: Daniel Bradley
Teaching Assistant
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Jan 2017 - Jan 2019
- Duties included grading assignments, exams, and providing constructive feedback.
- Supervisor: Jianping Qi
Service and leadership
Session Chair: Financial Management Association Annual Meeting, 2024, Grapevine TX
- Information Quality & Market Efficiency*
- Oct 19th, 2024
Session Chair: Southern Finance Association Annual Meeting, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
- Market Dynamics and Real Estate
- Nov 23rd, 2024
Adhoc Referee: Southern Finance Association