Online Stock Market Information Search Behaviour of Retail Investors: An Empirical Study in the Context of Social Media Sources

Papers have investigated about perpetual experience of the retail investors of the stock market in India. It has been seen that there’s a relationship between the demographic profile like gender, age, annual income, etc. with trade behaviour of retail investors. The aim of these studies is assessing the information of the investors and how they decide to invest in stock market. The information source, the information seeking techniques, type of info resources, content and usage of the information sought, issues faced by investors and other important factors for choosing information sources are some of the most important aspects. It has been seen that investors sought information about stock market from television, social media, etc. They apply this information to plans of stock investment. Although each problem of the information seeking is moderate, a lack of proper information search trainings is one of the biggest issues that the investors face while making an investment in the stock market. Sample of 263 respondents were surveyed to conduct the study and know the behaviour of retail investors while online stock market information search and the impact of social media platforms on their behaviour. Factor analysis was applied to analyse the data. It was concluded that different behaviours were found in retail investors while their online stock market information search and these behaviours are significantly influenced by social media sources.