Investor Sentiment Aligned : A Powerful Predictor of Stock Returns

We propose a new investor sentiment index that is aligned with the purpose of predicting the aggregate stock market. By eliminating a common noise component in sentiment proxies, the new index has much greater predictive power than existing sentiment indices both in- and out-of-sample, and the predictability becomes both statistically and economically significant. In addition, it outperforms well recognized macroeconomic variables and can also predict cross-sectional stock returns sorted by industry, size, value, and momentum. The driving force of the predictive power appears stemming from investors' biased belief about future cash flows