Structured Event Representation and Stock Return Predictability

Abstract: We find that event features extracted by LLMs are effective for text-based stock return prediction. Using a pre-trained LLM to extract event features from news articles, we propose a novel deep learning model based on structured event representation (SER) and attention mechanisms to predict stock returns in the cross-section. Our SER-based model provides superior performance compared with other existing text-driven models to forecast stock returns out of sample and offers highly interpretable feature structures to examine the mechanisms underlying the stock return predictability. We further provide various implications based on SER and highlight the crucial benefit of structured model inputs in stock return predictability.