Quant BuffetRelax, Not Over Thinking

Technical Sentiment Index in Cryptocurrencies

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Academic paper

Fundamental Sentiment and Cryptocurrency Risk Premia

AuthorsIlias Filippou; My T. Nguyen; Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj

Institute
  • Florida State University
  • Washington University in St. Louis
  • ?Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School
  • ?Washington University in St Louis, John M. Olin Business School
  • University of Warwick
  • ?Warwick Business School

Strategy in a nutshell

The study constructs cryptocurrency portfolios using technical (TSI) and fundamental (FSI) sentiment indices derived from news articles via BERT topic modeling. Cryptocurrencies are sorted into portfolios based on weekly betas to TSI or FSI, with a zero-cost long-short portfolio (HML TSI) capturing differences between high- and low-sensitivity assets. Weekly rebalancing ensures portfolios reflect evolving sentiment exposures.

Economic rationale

Sentiment extracted from news articles provides predictive power for cryptocurrency returns. High fundamental pessimism signals overvalued cryptocurrencies, while high technical pessimism increases risk. Investors demand risk premiums for holding such cryptocurrencies, making text-based sentiment factors a statistically significant driver of cross-sectional returns.

Backtest performance

Annualised return37.02%
Volatility26.67%
Sharpe ratio1.3