Forward looking statement, investor sentiment and stock liquidity

Information is a critical element of capital markets, and liquidity is the lifeblood of capital markets. Relative to historical information, forward-looking information is of significant value to investors. Based on textual analysis calculations, we selected Chinese A-share listed companies as a research sample to explore the impact of forward-looking information disclosure level on stock liquidity. It is found that the higher the level of forward-looking information disclosure, the better the stock liquidity. Investor sentiment is the transmission mechanism through which the forward looking statement disclosure level affects stock liquidity. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the level of forward-Looking statement disclosure has a more significant effect on stock liquidity improvement for state-owned enterprises and enterprises in low-market regions than those in regions with high marketization levels. The article expands and enriches the research on forward-looking information disclosure, and also has some reference value for regulators to formulate laws and regulations and regulate forward-looking information disclosure. •Our study discusses the relationship between the level of forward-looking statement disclosure and stock liquidity, expanding and enriching the research related to textual disclosure and providing new empirical evidence to the previous view.•Our study proposes a completely new way of constructing dictionaries from the perspective of word frequencies. This method avoids subjectivity and has strong applicability.•We find that the level of forward-looking information disclosure can have an impact on stock liquidity.