We study a regulation that increased mutual funds’ risk salience through name change. Using daily fund flow data and several identification strategies, we find that requiring certain fixed income mutual funds to affix an exclamation mark ("!") to their names caused a statistically and economically significant decline in their net flows, with a larger effect on fund inflows than outflows. The exclamation mark's impact stems from retail investors, both those that seek financial advice and those that invest independently. Mutual funds “defamed” by the exclamation mark designation actually increased their exposure to the particular risk highlighted by the regulator.

This paper investigates the stock market reaction to a change in investor mood following the Eurovision Song Contest—an annual international song competition and one of the most watched non-sporting events globally. Contrary to existing literature on international competitions, we find a positive swing in investor sentiment in the winning country. The elevated atmosphere is reflected in a positive abnormal return of approximately 0.35% on the first trading day after the victory. This finding is robust to various event-study methods and to various benchmarks. This positive return is reversed several days later. Further, we do not find any indication of negative sentiment in other participating countries; specifically, in countries perceived as the losers of the contest. Finally, we do not find any indication that the positive market reaction reflects economic benefits stemming from a victory. Overall, we conjecture that a competition structure is an important determinant of investor sentiment in stock markets.