Summary of #gamestop Tweet Analysis
Sai Rajuladevi
2/24/2021
Date that the article was published: February 16, 2021
Summary of Article
- The article presented data analyses on how tweets between Jan 25th-29th could give us an insight into the stock market. By delving deeper into interdependencies between societal networks, it is possible to analyze hashtags created by key users and their impacts on the number of tweets made in a period of time. Through a complex network analysis, a network of tweets referencing usernames was used to build the #gamestop graph network where nodes are users, and directed edges denote users referencing others through tweets.
Complex Network Analysis
- From each tweet, it is possible to get the username (starting from@), of the user, as well as anyone mentioned in the tweet. From the ~170k tweets, there were ~130k unique users either tweeting or mentioned. Let’s look at the top 10 frequent usernames:
- Apart from simple frequencies, we can build the network of tweets referencing usernames, to build the #gamestop graph network where nodes are users, and directed edges denote users referencing others with through @. Vivek used the python NetworkX package for this.
Outcomes
- In analyzing #gamestop tweets during the crazy stock markets, Vivek thought it might be interesting to observe tweet numbers following stock market trends. In this “naïve presumption,” Vivek “didn’t realize how fascinatingly complex the whole scenario could be with tweets influencing stocks, stocks influencing tweets, and complex interdependent, dynamic networks.”
Author Information
Dr. Skanda Vivek obtained his Ph.D. from Emory University in 2016, working with Eric Weeks on the role of dimensionality in disordered materials. During his doctoral studies, Vivek published across top scientific journals including Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and PLOS One. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Vivek received the Jim and Ethel Montag Award which is awarded to a graduate student in physics for exceptional research accomplishments.
His work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Inverse and ars Technica. In addition, Vivek is currently serving as founding member and treasurer of the data science group at the American Physical Society.
At GGC, Vivek is incorporating low-cost robotics that students build to overcome hurdles to STEM and increase student interest and engagement.
Discussion and Related Links
Discussion of Article
I found the article to be an interesting and contemporary analysis on the topic of the recent Gamestop stock surge. While the article did not uncover any clear conclusions about the effect of certain tweets on the stock market, it did show the complexities of the situation and offered further analyses on the network of factors that could affect the market. I certainly found it appealing that Data Science could be used to analyze such patterns in tweets, and I look forward to doing something similar in the future. 
