An Optimal Multi-Modal Approach for Stock Market Price Forecasting with Fused Sentiment Analysis for Real Time Data

Abstract: This study presents an innovative fusion-based methodology that integrates real-time stock market technical indicators with news sentiment analysis from financial news feeds to enhance stock selection decisions. The proposed framework employs a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) model for forecasting stock prices and a Deep Neural Network (DNN) used in conjunction with transformer-based model for sentiment classification, both optimized through the incorporation of real-time datasets. To further refine feature selection, Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and Firefly algorithms are utilized, significantly improving the accuracy of price trend predictions and sentiment analysis. Technical indicators from stock market data are processed using the Bi-LSTM model to predict future stock prices. Concurrently, sentiment data from the Economic Times is pre-processed through Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) vectorization and pre-trained transformer models to extract key sentiment scores. The ABC algorithm enhances textual feature selection, while the Firefly algorithm reduces skewness in the error distribution of technical indicators, thereby improving the alignment between forecasted and actual stock prices. The fusion mechanism integrates predicted price movements with sentiment analysis to provide actionable insights for stock selection. The decision-making framework classifies stocks based on the consistency between price movements and sentiment: stocks predicted to rise with positive sentiment are labelled as "Sure Selection"; rising prices with negative sentiment are categorized as "Dicey Selection"; declining prices with positive sentiment result in a "Risky Selection"; and negative sentiment with falling prices trigger an "Avoid Selection". The proposed approach achieved a prediction accuracy of 67.00% for the Bi-LSTM model, with a precision of 0.714, recall of 0.695, and an F1 score of 0.677, demonstrating the model's robustness. The mean absolute error (MAE) for the Bi-LSTM model was 4.30, indicating strong predictive performance. The combined use of ABC and Firefly algorithms optimizes both technical and sentiment features, significantly contributing to the overall performance of the prediction model. By fusing multiple data sources and employing advanced optimization techniques, this methodology offers a unique and effective solution for stock market prediction and decision-making