  Many studies have been undertaken by using machine learning techniques,
including neural networks, to predict stock returns. Recently, a method known
as deep learning, which achieves high performance mainly in image recognition
and speech recognition, has attracted attention in the machine learning field.
This paper implements deep learning to predict one-month-ahead stock returns in
the cross-section in the Japanese stock market and investigates the performance
of the method. Our results show that deep neural networks generally outperform
shallow neural networks, and the best networks also outperform representative
machine learning models. These results indicate that deep learning shows
promise as a skillful machine learning method to predict stock returns in the
cross-section.

Statistical Finance;Machine Learning