This paper has been withdrawn by the authors.
We empirically investigated the effects of market factors on the information flow created from N(N-1)/2 linkage relationships among stocks. We also examined the possibility of employing the minimal spanning tree (MST) method, which is capable of reducing the number of links to N-1. We determined that market factors carry important information value regarding information flow among stocks. Moreover, the information flow among stocks evidenced time-varying properties according to the changes in market status. In particular, we noted that the information flow increased dramatically during periods of market crises. Finally, we confirmed, via the MST method, that the information flow among stocks could be assessed effectively with the reduced linkage relationships among all links between stocks from the perspective of the overall market.
Using transfer entropy, we observed the strength and direction of information flow between stock indices. We uncovered that the biggest source of information flow is America. In contrast, the Asia/Pacific region the biggest is receives the most information. According to the minimum spanning tree, the GSPC is located at the focal point of the information source for world stock markets.
We investigated the network structures of the Japanese stock market through the minimum spanning tree. We defined grouping coefficient to test the validity of conventional grouping by industrial categories, and found a decreasing in trend for the coefficient. This phenomenon supports the increasing external influences on the market due to the globalization. To reduce this influence, we used S&P500 index as the international market and removed its correlation with every stock. We found stronger grouping in this measurement, compared to the original analysis, which agrees with our assumption that the international market influences to the Japanese market.
We investigate the strength and the direction of information transfer in the U.S. stock market between the composite stock price index of stock market and prices of individual stocks using the transfer entropy. Through the directionality of the information transfer, we find that individual stocks are influenced by the index of the market.
