On May 6, 2024, at 15：30pm, the 29th Forum on Digital Technology and Economic Finance Frontiers was successfully held. The theme of this lecture was "Analyst Report Tones as a Barometer of Investor Sentiment", and the guest speaker was Professor Jun Tu from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The lecture was chaired by Minggui Yu, dean of the Finance School and co-director of the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance.Professor Jin Shi, the chief expert of the base, researchers and graduate students from the School of Finance attended the lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Jin Shi briefly introduced relevant information of Professor Jun Tu to the participants and expressed his sincere gratitude for his availability to give a lecture at our college despite his busy schedule.

During the lecture, Professor Jun Tu first elaborated on the basic content of the paper and the research theme of this lecture. The paper aims to explore the introduction of a market-level analyst sentiment index by aggregating the tones in analyst reports to assess investor sentiment. As investor sentiment escalates, analysts tend to have consistent sentiment, often supporting rather than challenging investors' optimistic sentiment.

First, Professor Jun Tu discussed how investor behavior and analyst behavior affect decision-making outcomes based on US data. After that, Professor Minggui Yu delved into the value of analyst behavior and sentiment, and posed questions related to analyst reports and actual sentiment value, taking into account the Chinese market and real-world conditions. Professor Jun Tu responded to these inquiries, focusing on the impact and effectiveness, and interpreted and analyzed related indicators. In addition, Professor Minggui Yu explored the correlation and influence between investor sentiment and analyst sentiment, and Professor Jun Tu explained that asset premiums would fluctuate and suggested that more indicators were needed to comprehensively address the pain points of different industries and provide industry-specific interpretations. Overall, compared with traditional indices, this index construction may be better at capturing changes in investor sentiment in recent years, while traditional indices have changed little over time. Furthermore, the analyst sentiment index predicts stock market returns in the opposite direction and outperforms traditional sentiment indices in terms of predictive ability. Fundamentally, analyst sentiment provides a unique and valuable perspective for assessing investor sentiment.

Finally, the participants had an active academic exchange with Professor Jun Tu, and jointly conducted academic discussions on the theme of the lecture. Professor Jun Tu from Shanghai Jiao Tong University provided detailed answers to the questions and puzzles of the teachers and students. Professor Minggui Yu expressed his gratitude to Professor Jun Tu for his speech, and the forum came to a successful conclusion.

Speaker Introduction

Jun Tu is a professor in the Department of Finance at Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and also a professor at the Zhongyin Institute of Technology Finance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Washington in 2004 and joined the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University in the same year. His research areas cover behavioral finance, financial technology, text analysis and machine learning, financial econometrics, asset pricing, investor sentiment, media and capital markets, asset return prediction, portfolio management, corporate finance, and more. Professor Tu Jun has published numerous academic papers in top international finance journals, including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Management Science. His research has received various research awards, including the Review of Financial Studies 2015-2016 Highest Read Paper Award and Highest Cited Paper Award, Lee Foundation Fellowship for Research Excellence, Sing Lun Fellowship, Pacific Basin Finance Journal Prize (First Prize), and the University of Washington Research Fellowship. Currently, Professor Tu Jun serves as the associate editor of Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, associate editor of China Finance Review International, and the field editor of Emerging Markets Finance and Trade.

Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance introduction

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.