Stock market is driven by market sentiments, emotions and fear. And more often than not, few unscrupulous elements manipulate these factors to bring in artificial demand/supply of particular stocks and commodities, which brings in illegal profits for their companies.
Rumors and misinformation triggers such ripples, which can devastate the small-time investor, and can ruin all his investments.
Bombay Stock Exchange, India’s oldest and world’s fastest stock exchange, has admitted the power of digital media in fueling rumors, and have decided to act against this practice. Targeting the very medium which breeds false stories and rumors, which can trigger unprecedented buying/selling of few stocks, BSE is pretty serious in containing this menace.
BSE Embraces Big Data To Kill Rumors
Using statistical modeling and big data analytics, BSE has commissioned a control mechanism, which will monitor and track news about all listed companies on social and digital medium.
There are more than 5500 listed companies on BSE, and thus, every news items published and circulated – either online or offline would be now tracked, monitored and checked for authenticity.
Explaining the objectives of this control mechanism, BSE said in a statement, “The primary objective of verification is that the mechanism will detect and mitigate potential risks of market manipulation, rumour, and reduce information asymmetry arising from it on digital media platforms, including social media,”
BSE has listed three main purposes of controlling and taming social media and digital media, when it comes to business news: Ensuring market integrity; orderly functioning of stock market and investor’s protection against such rumors.
BSE also said, “BSE will continue to deploy and enhance advanced technological innovations to track social media.”
News Has To Be Confirmed By Companies
As per reports, BSE management has formed an internal audit team, which will receive data from this control mechanism, powered by Big Data and Statistical Modeling. This team will verify the news, and in case of any discrepancy, the concerned listed company will be confronted, and answers would be demanded.
The updated information, clarification and justifications would be timely updated on the source of news website and/or the concerned company’s website so that the investor is able to make an informed decision.
Justifying this move, BSE also said, “On this background, any material news or rumour floating in the social media can have a very big potential for impacting the sentiments of the investing population which can further impact price/volumes of securities traded on exchange platforms.”
Do you think that controlling fake, leaked news about listed companies would bring more awareness among investors, and it will help to stop rumors? What else can BSE do to ensure that only genuine news is being shared on social media? Do let us know by commenting right here!
