An investigation of financial information and its presentation in online investing
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Date
2020-01
Authors
Cotter, Aodán
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
Online financial investing has progressed in many ways since it first emerged as a
practice two and a half decades ago. Much has changed in that time, nothing more so
than the information needed to make financial decisions and the mediums through
which this financial information is obtained. While investors have traditionally made
decisions on stocks based on advice from financial advisors or through their own in-
depth research, new developments have led to a whole new array of methods to obtain
this financial information. This thesis studies how investors get their financial
information and how this information is presented. In addition, this thesis looks at the
medium through which investors obtain their financial information. Traditionally this
has been visually but recent developments in audio technology has allowed financial
companies to provide information audibly as multimodal systems that combine audio
and visual information together have become available. While looking at how
investors get their financial information, this thesis also examines whether these
multimodal systems can be beneficial in providing the financial information to
investors.
This thesis contains three core chapters, each tackling a separate research question as
part of the overarching research objective which examines how investors receive their
financial information. The thesis begins with an examination of the new practice of
social trading - acquiring financial information over a social network. It investigates
how people use this information to copy other people’s trades - a practice known as
copy trading, and what motivates them to do so. The results suggest that for a
participant in a social trading network to engage in copy trading, they must be provided
with information that leads to affect-based and cognition-based signals of
trustworthiness of the investor they are copying.
As the study develops, it moves into examining multimodality and how investors
receive their financial information, specifically examining how multimodal systems
compare to their single modality counterparts for imparting financial information.
In total four Proofs of Concepts systems were developed for this thesis. Two separate
comparison tests used these proof of concept systems, comparing a multimodal system
against a single modality system. The results of each of these tests are analysed in
order to derive conclusions about the effects of multimodality in online investing. The
results of this thesis show how retail investors now have more ways of obtaining
financial information. The thesis also shows how, by presenting financial information
using multimodal systems, investor confidence can be increased. In doing so, it
demonstrates how the multimodal presentation of financial information can be both
beneficial to investors and preferred to single modality systems. Finally, the results
found that the addition of multimodality to systems can help create informating
systems from what were previously automating systems.
Description
Keywords
Informating , Financial technology , Copy trading , Information modality , Online investing
Citation
Cotter, A. P. 2020. An investigation of financial information and its presentation in online investing. MRes Thesis, University College Cork.