Ongoing History Daily: Can music be used to predict the stock market?

People who play the stock market are always looking for an edge. Can music be used to predict the way the market will go? Dr. Philip Maymin was an assistant professor of finance and risk engineering at Polytechnic Institute at New York University.

He found a correlation between popular music and the direction of stocks. Looking at the Billboard Top 100 singles, he found that people tended to listen to calmer and softer songs when they were worried about market volatility. But when everyone felt good about how things were performing and were anticipating calm markets, they listened to rock and other high-energy music.

There’s a question for your financial advisor at your next meeting.