Numerals in Financial Narratives

Numerals are more common in financial narratives than in documents from other domains, which makes understanding numerals very important when analyzing financial documents. In this chapter, we summarize our work on numerals in financial narratives and share findings from the FinNum shared task series in the 14th and 15th NTCIR Conferences. In Sect. 5.1, we discuss how to understand the meaning of a given numeral, and in Sect. 5.2, we discuss numeral attachment, where we link numerals and named entities. In Sect. 5.3, we show experimental results from downstream tasks that demonstrate the importance of numeral understanding in financial narratives. We conclude by proposing future research directions in Sect. 5.4.

Perspectives and Conclusion

In this book, we started by describing the components of financial opinions as well as opinion sources in the financial domain. Then, we surveyed options for modeling financial opinions, and discussed in detail one fundamental characteristic of financial narratives: numerals. We also listed numerous applications and research directions. We have thus described financial opinion mining and have provided essential examples to illustrate various concepts. In this final chapter, we organize future directions and summarize the ideas in the book.

Financial narratives in crisis

Amin Samman’s History in Financial Times addresses the need to develop more nuanced ways to account for history, given that succession, as a model of making history, so clearly falls short. His emphasis on narrative throughout the book is hugely important at a moment of widespread narrative dysfunctionality in which the distinction between fact and fiction comes to be widely contested.

How Am I Doing? Perceived Financial Well-Being, Its Potential Antecedents, and Its Relation to Overall Well-Being

Though perceived financial well-being is viewed as an important topic of consumer research, the literature contains no accepted definition of this construct. Further, there has been little systematic examination of how perceived financial well-being may affect overall well-being. Using consumer financial narratives, several large-scale surveys, and two experiments, we conceptualize perceived financial well-being as two related but separate constructs: 1) stress related to the management of money today (current money management stress), and 2) a sense of security in one’s financial future (expected future financial security). We develop and validate measures of these constructs (web appendix A) and then demonstrate their relationship to overall well-being, controlling for other life domains and objective measures of the financial domain. Our findings demonstrate that perceived financial well-being is a key predictor of overall well-being and comparable in magnitude to the combined effect of other life domains (job satisfaction, physical health assessment, and relationship support satisfaction). Further, the relative importance of current money management stress to overall well-being varies by income groups and due to the differing antecedents of current money management stress and expected future financial security. Implications for financial well-being and education efforts are offered.

The power of stories to persuade: The storying of midwives and the financial narratives of central policy makers

The power of stories to persuade in infl uencing the process of change is the focus of this article. Attention is given to the importance of stories in making sense of past experience, of unifying groups, and in presenting options for future engagement and action. Unlike the narrative concern with sequencing, coherence and the need for a beginning, middle and end, it is argued that stories are often partial and ongoing, occur at multiple levels compete, complement and redefine positions. The plurality and political nature of stories are illustrated in an analysis of data drawn from a longitudinal study of six health care sites in remote and rural Scotland. The study concludes by arguing that stories are a powerful political vehicle in influencing sense-making and a critical component in maintaining choice and defl ecting the imposition of a single simple solution (hegemonic influence) over various interpretations of what are complex context-based issues.

The power of stories to persuade: The storying of midwives and the financial narratives of central policy makers

The power of stories to persuade in infl uencing the process of change is the focus of this article. Attention is given to the importance of stories in making sense of past experience, of unifying groups, and in presenting options for future engagement and action. Unlike the narrative concern with sequencing, coherence and the need for a beginning, middle and end, it is argued that stories are often partial and ongoing, occur at multiple levels compete, complement and redefine positions. The plurality and political nature of stories are illustrated in an analysis of data drawn from a longitudinal study of six health care sites in remote and rural Scotland. The study concludes by arguing that stories are a powerful political vehicle in influencing sense-making and a critical component in maintaining choice and defl ecting the imposition of a single simple solution (hegemonic influence) over various interpretations of what are complex context-based issues.