(Correspondent Shiyi Xiao) On the afternoon of March 30, 2022, the first Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance, jointly sponsored by the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance, the School of Finance, and Collaborative Faculties, was successfully held online. Professor Qiang Ye, Dean of the School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Director of the Fintech Research Institute of Shenzhen Harbin Institute of Technology was invited to give the lecture. The theme of the first forum was "Time Heterogeneity of Online Search on Stock Yields". The forum was presided over by Professor Yongbin Lv, Vice Dean of the School of Finance and Deputy Director of the Base. More than 230 people attended the forum, including Professor Dawei Jin, Co-Director of the Base; Associate Professor Xianming Sun, Executive Deputy Director of the Base, as well as other teachers and students.

Professor Qiang Ye introduced the meaning of investor attention and discussed its importance for both of the financial and the information field. Then, he introduced the measurement of investor attention - the search index. According to existing research, the search index could predict stock yields.

However, Professor Ye said that searching has heterogeneity in four aspects, which are correspondingly time, space, technology, and motivation. This issue has not yet been discussed in depth in the extant literature. Therefore, Professor Ye and his research team started from the heterogeneity in time and used the S&P500 and Google Search Index from 2004 to 2012, and the CSI 300 and the Baidu Search Index from 2008 to 2012, to explore the heterogeneous impact of search volume on weekday and weekend. The study shows that while searches on weekday account for about 90% of a week's search volume, their effect on stock trading are not significant; searches on Saturdays and Sundays are more correlated with stock returns.

Subsequently, Professor Ye Qiang introduced the mechanism behind these results. Based on the cognitive mechanism in cognitive psychology, the article argues that investors can better perform central cognitive mechanisms over the weekend to conduct in-depth searches and make decisions from the search results. To examine this hypothesis, the authors used the FEARS and VIX indexes to identify investors' trading behavior under the mood of panic over the weekend, and the results showed that when investors were unable to think deeply (in panic situations), their search volume could not significantly affect stock returns. This result further verifies its mechanism hypothesis.

At the end of the lecture, Mr. Weige Huang of the School of Wenlan, Mr. Xianming Sun of the School of Finance, and Mr. Yongbin Lv had a communication with the speaker. This lecture opened up the mind of students and enlightened their ability of critical thinking.

Speaker Introduction

Qiang Ye, Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Harbin Institute of Technology, Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars, Director of the Fintech Research Institute of Shenzhen Harbin Institute of Technology. He is also the Vice Chairman of the Management Science and Engineering Society, Chairman of the Big Data and Business Analysis Research Association, Vice Chairman of the China Information Economics Association, Chairman of the Financial Technology Professional Committee, Member of the National Key Special Blockchain Expert Group of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the 6th National Member of the MBA Teaching Guidance Committee, member of the 7th Academic Degree Committee of the State Council Discipline Evaluation Group. His main research fields are digital economy, artificial intelligence, big data analysis, financial technology, etc. In recent years, he has published more than 60 papers in ISR, POM, JMIS, TM, JFM, and other journals. In 2012, he was awarded the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. In 2017, he won the China Information Economics Wu Jiapei Award. Selected as Elsevier China Highly Cited Scholars in 2015-2020.

Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic acceleration in a digital revolution in economic sectors and a rapid adoption of the new generation of information technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data, etc. These technologies effectively set off the digital economy. It has become a key driving force in creating global economic growth, improving the modernization level of governance capabilities, and promoting high-quality economic development in China. In particular, digital finance is the most important part of the digital economy. To explore the development direction of the cross-integration of digital technology and finance, the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance is hosting the “Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance”, in collaboration with the School of Finance, Wenlan School of Business, Economics School, School of Information and Safety Engineering, School of Statistics and Mathematics, School of Public Finance and Taxation of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL). This lecture series will invite the well-known scholars at home and abroad in digital technology, digital economy, digital finance, and other related fields as guest speakers, providing an open and cutting-edge academic exchange platform for interdisciplinary research on digital technology and finance.