Share Pledge Transactions as an Investor Sentiment Indicator : Evidence from China

This paper examines how share pledge transactions signal changes in investor sentiment. Based on the investor sentiment model proposed by Gervais and Odean (2001), we develop an investor sentiment model by incorporating the impact of share pledge transactions on stock prices by linking the signal transmission of the share pledges with investor decision making. Using data from the China stock market from 2014 to 2018, we find that share pledge transactions can lead to emotional bias and consequently affect investment decisions. Specifically, stock market volatility increases with changes in both optimistic and pessimistic investor sentiment bias regarding share pledge transactions. From the perspective of behavioral finance, with the Vector Autoregression (VAR) model and the impulse response test, we study the relationship between investor sentiment indicators, including share pledge factors and stock market volatility. Among the investor sentiment indicator components, we find that the composition weights of the share pledge volume and the share pledge ratio are 22.54%, and 21.49% respectively. Share pledge transactions have an obvious impact on investor sentiment. The paper also shows that share pledge transactions have an accelerating effect on stock price cyclical fluctuations through the investor sentiment effect. During a stock index crash, such transactions may constitute a potential market factor of instability.