Year of Graduation

2024

Level of Access

Restricted Access Thesis

Embargo Period

5-16-2024

Department or Program

Economics

First Advisor

Daniel F. Stone

Abstract

This research looks at the trading app Robinhood and how retail investors trading on this app behave in reaction to macroeconomic news releases. Robinhood is a new trading platform that has become popular recently with its focus on increasing access to investing with zero commission trading. This research focuses its study on retail investors trading on Robinhood and uses the news from monthly unemployment releases to understand how these users react to news. I look at how users buying a stock after an event relates to that stock's excess returns in order to assess over or underreactions by these retail investors. While there is evidence supporting different trading behaviors on good and bad news events, there is no evidence supporting over or underreactions.

Restricted

Available only to users on the Bowdoin campus.

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