Below we present a schematic description of the model used in the process of forecasting cryptocurrencies trend, from the stage of data collection, through analysis, to the final results.
Data aggregation
Behavioral data (textual mentions)
Text data (mentions) are continuously collected from the most valuable internet sources such as Twitter or Reddit, in terms of content quality and quantity. They are downloaded in English and contain key phrases we have chosen, e.g.: “crypto”, “BTC”, “Bitcoin” etc. Each mention has its own timestamp, which determines when it is written and downloaded.
Financial data
The financial analysis model continuously downloads data via the exchange API *Bitstamp. For comparison purposes, users can download it from sites such as https://www.cryptodatadownload.com/data/bitstamp/ (downloadable CSV file) or https://coinpaprika.com/coin/btc-bitcoin/ (option “export” under the chart).
*Bitstamp has been chosen as the source of financial data for its access convenience. In the target solution, it is planned to extend the possibility of choosing as a source one of several available stock exchanges.
Analysis
Behavioral analysis (emotive)
- In the first step, the model continuously evaluates all downloaded mentions regarding the emotions they contain. Per each mention 11 emotional parameters are assigned – 8 emotions, 2 sentiments – positive and negative and arousal.
- Then, depending on the criteria set for the predictive data, the results of the emotional evaluation for each mention are grouped (packed) into specific packages. For example, for a 24-hour prediction it is a one-hour package.
The whole process takes place in a continuous mode where the last 3 days’ mentions are analyzed (every day after 4 PM). This means that, for example, for the 5th of May 2020, the mentions from May 2nd, 16:00 to May 5th, 16:00 are taken for analysis. Each mention is evaluated as a percentage of 11 emotional markers: 8 emotions, 2 sentiments – positive and negative and arousal.
Financial analysis
- In the first stage, the model takes the candle data from the stock exchange and then buckets them into packages of equal size, analogically as in the case of social mentions.
- Then new candles are created from the resulting packages. For example, for the 24h prediction, hourly candles are created, containing the opening price, closing price, high and low. Additionally, the volume of transactions for a given period is also taken into account and as a result 5 parameters are analyzed.
Results
In the final stage, the Sentistocks model compares the received behavioral data packages with the financial data packets, looking for correlations between them. The very way of operation of our model based on deep neural networks – the model for trend prediction in the next time window is built on the basis of an artificial neural network using BiLSTM (bidirectional long short-term memory), which is a recursive neural network dedicated to processing sequential data in both directions.
Here you can find the graphic scheme of how the model works:
LEGEND:
The input of the LSTM Layer:
- Input: In our case it’s a packed input but it can also be the original sequence while each Xi represents a word in the sentence (with padding elements).
- h_0: The initial hiLegenda:dden state that we feed with the model.
- c_0: The initial cell state that we feed with the model.
The output of the LSTM Layer:
- Output: The first value returned by LSTM contains all the hidden states throughout the sequence.
- h_n: The second output are the last hidden states of each of the LSTM layers.
- c_n: The third output is the last cell state for each of the LSTM layers.
For example, the set of behavioral input data for the 24-hour average prediction are 72 hourly packages (last 3 days) and the same amount of financial data (72 hourly candles + transaction volume for each hour). Thus, a total of 16 variables are taken for each of the 3 windows: 11 emotional (behavioral) and 5 financial variables.
The final value to which we tune the model during supervised learning is the value of the average closing price in the following 24 hours.
For prediction we use the model learned on data from the full 2018 and 2019. This amount of information allows us to learn patterns that allow for effective prediction. The model can generate results every hour in the form of the average closing price for the next 24 hours.
If the forecasted price is between -0.66% – +0.66%, we consider it a side trend. If these values are exceeded we forecast a noticeable upward or downward trend.