Michiel Lescrauwaet’s scientific contributions

The Google Search Volume Index is proposed as a novel and improved proxy for overreaction as selling winner stocks after they enjoyed a substantial surge in search volume is found to be profitable. It increases the gains of a standard reversal strategy, net of transaction costs, from 17.5 basis points to 34.2 basis points on a weekly basis, corresponding to a 9.1% increase on an annual basis. Furthermore, we report significant alphas in Fama–French-type regressions. The results suggest that most of the reversal profits are made in volatile times, which are typically periods when overreaction is most likely.