Social media discussions anticipates financial market volumes

The role of social media platforms, where opinions form and are shared, in stock market movements is becoming increasingly important. Several past studies have demonstrated the predictive power of web-based information analysis on investor sentiment and opinion. This paper analyzes the present relationship between discussions on X (previously known as Twitter) and market movements. Additionally, we contribute to the existing body of knowledge by introducing novel approaches grounded in information theory. Through empirical analysis and advanced statistical techniques, our study sheds light on the continued influence of social media sentiment on stock price returns, providing valuable insights for investors and market analysts navigating the complexities of modern financial markets. • Information theory applied to the structure of social networks discussing financial instruments anticipates the volume of the latter ones. • Combining Twitter and financial news using a multivariate transfer entropy approach enhances prediction accuracy. • Hashtag-based semantic networks reveal discussion topics more strongly correlated with trading volume than overall tweet volume.