16 June 2026

Study: Why Investment Podcasts Influence the Stock Market but Don't Deliver Better Returns

Investment podcasts can prompt investors to take action. However, they do not provide a reliable return advantage. This is shown in a new working paper by Prof. Dr. Marten Laudi of Kühne Logistics University (KLU) and Janik Ole Wecks of the University of Bremen. Using over 25,000 episodes, the study examines how podcast content about publicly traded companies and stocks correlates with trading activity, price movements, and investment returns.

A person works at a desk with multiple monitors displaying financial charts, wearing headphones and taking notes.

Context: The Podcast Boom Meets the Retail Investor Boom

In Germany, 24 million people listen to podcasts—and the trend is on the rise (Online Audio Monitor 2025). But how reliable are podcasts as a basis for investment decisions? This new study provides systematic answers for the first time.

Podcasts promote understanding—but not returns

Podcasts can help people better understand companies, quarterly earnings, or market trends. However, the new study shows that those who react solely to podcast content do not gain a systematic investment advantage from it. Trading strategies based on podcast content do not reliably outperform passive benchmark strategies. In some cases, they even perform worse over realistic implementation timeframes.

“Podcasts can make information more accessible and provide guidance,” says Dr. Marten Laudi, a professor of finance at Kühne Logistics University. “However, our results do not suggest that investors can achieve consistently above-average returns based solely on podcast content when we take realistic reaction times into account.”

Why Podcasts Still Influence Markets

Just because podcast content doesn’t deliver better returns doesn’t mean it has no impact. When individual stocks are discussed in investment podcasts, trading activity increases significantly afterward. This effect is reflected in higher stock turnover, more pronounced absolute price movements, and increased activity among retail investors. The reaction is strongest on the day the episode is released, but remains visible in the days that follow.

The results suggest that information shared in podcasts spreads particularly quickly and is viewed by listeners as actionable. Reactions are particularly strong when podcasts have a wider reach, contain specific buy or sell signals, or provide additional context for corporate news such as quarterly earnings.

“Podcasts don’t necessarily create new information. But they make existing information more understandable, more visible, and easier to act upon,” says Laudi. “Retail investors in particular are visibly responsive to this form of presentation.”

Extensive Data Set

For the study, the authors analyzed more than 25,000 transcribed episodes of English-language investment podcasts and identified over 100,000 time-stamped segments of conversation about individual stocks. They linked this data to trading volumes, price movements, and data on Robinhood user portfolios.

The study thus demonstrates that podcasts are a relevant channel for financial communication. They influence trading decisions and accelerate the dissemination of publicly available information—though without providing investors with a demonstrable return advantage.