Google searches could be a good sentiment analysis tool for gauging where investors sit in the investor psychology cycle.
Liquidity and momentum were the drivers of the last bull market. Fundamentals and earnings had less of an impact on prices, and I believe this could continue to be the case in the next decade’s bull cycle.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is where investors’ sentiment shifts from depression to neutral to optimism.
Google searches can determine Irrational Exuberance, a state of investor mania, the maturing of a bull cycle which is the worst time to buy and best time to sell.
Analyzing google searches is about data mining for profits.
“Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is where investors’ sentiment shifts from depression to neutral to optimism”
WEALTH TRAINING COMPANY
Top google searches in 2022
Last year, 2022, was the most turbulent year for investors in more than four decades, with trillions of dollars wiped off portfolio values across all asset classes.
Inflation-fighting monetary policy, tighter liquidity conditions due to rate hikes, quantitative tightening, and letting bond yields rise burst the bubble of everything and dragged investor sentiment into a depression.
In light of the above, what were the top google searches in 2022 relating to investing?
Visual Capitalist chart shows the top google US searches in 2022 with an investor theme.
The first quarter of 2022 started; with resignations, and people resigning from their jobs as the top search in 2022, which explains worker shortages.
“people resigning from their jobs as the top search in 2022”
WEALTH TRAINING COMPANY
People too ill to work due to the pandemic-related illness, older workforce reluctant to work in open offices, mandatory vaccinations, and vaccine-related illnesses could explain resignation making the top keyword search.
So worker shortages, as a wave of the workforce taking early retirement, could adversely impact the economy.
“Investors fret about a housing bubble burst in Q2, 2022, according to google search analysis” – Wealth Training Company
Geopolitical impact on google searches
The Russian invasion of Ukraine pushed the Russian stock market into the second top position for google searches in 2022. The Russian stock market took leading google search positions in March and February when war broke out.
Investment sentiment then nosedives, in Q2, 2022, as investors keyword google searches for Oil prices, housing bubble, recession, and inflation.
Searches for oil prices come in at the third top search in 2022, particularly in March, as crude oil hits 13 years high at 125 US dollars per barrel in early March with Russian sanctions.
Housing, the most leveraged asset, makes it to the fourth top position for google searches with an investment theme in 2022
Inflation and tighter liquidity conditions drag investment psychology down toward depression.
Investors fret about a housing bubble burst in Q2, 2022, according to google search analysis.
Bitcoin mania, irrational exuberance nosedives, and the largest cap crypto goes into a bear market, with Bitcoin being the sixth most investor word searched in google.
The fastest pace of rate hikes in over four decades, and investors begin panicking about a recession, as it makes it to the seventh highest google word search in 2022.
Google searches for layoffs hit an all-time high in November, as financial markets remain deep in bear territory as investment sentiment falls into a depression in the final quarter of 2022.
