Showing papers on "Algorithmic trading published in 1998"

Why Do Companies List Shares Abroad?: A Survey of the Evidence and Its Managerial Implications

Abstract: The purpose of this monograph is to survey the academic literature on the economic implications of the corporate decision to list shares on an overseas stock exchange. My focus is on the valuation and liquidity effects of the listing decision, and the impact of listing on the company's global risk exposure and its cost of equity capital. The evidence shows: (1) share prices reacts favorably to cross-border listings in the first month after listing; (2) post-listing price performance up to one year is highly variable across companies depending on the home and listing market, its capitalization, capital-raising needs and other company-specific factors; (3) post-listing trading volume increases on average, and, for many issues, home-market trading volume increases also; (4) liquidity of trading in shares improves overall, but depends on the increase in total trading volume, the listing location and the scope of foreign ownership restrictions in the home market; (5) domestic market risk is significantly reduced and is associated with only a small increase in global market risk and foreign exchange risk, which can result in a net reduction in the cost of equity capital of about 126 basis points; (6) American Depositary Receipts represent an effective vehicle to diversify U.S.-based investment programs globally; (7) stringent disclosure requirements are the most important impediment to cross-border listings.

Investment intelligence from insider trading

Abstract: Part 1 Insider-trading patterns. Part 2 Does insider trading predict future stock returns?. Part 3 A stock-picking strategy. Part 4 Predicting future market returns. Part 5 Crash of October 1987 and insider trading. Part 6 Dividend yields and insider trading. Part 7 Dividend initiations. Part 8 Earnings announcements. Part 9 Price-earnings ratio. Part 10 Book-to-market ratio. Part 11 Insiders trading in target firms. Part 12 Insider trading in bidder firms. Part 13 Momentum and mean reversion. Part 14 Implementation and conclusions.

The Cost of Institutional Equity Trades

Abstract: Presented are an overview of the findings from the recent literature on the cost of U.S. equity trades for institutional investors and new evidence on trading costs from a large sample of institutional trades. The findings discussed have important implications for policymakers and investors: Implicit trading costs are economically significant; equity trading costs vary considerably and vary systematically with trade difficulty and order-placement strategy; and whether a trade price represents “best execution” depends on detailed data for the trade's entire order-submission process, especially information on pretrade decision variables, such as the trading horizon.

The effects of stock index futures trading on stock index volatility: An analysis of the asymmetric response of volatility to news

Abstract: The asymmetric response of volatility to news has been attributed to leverage effects, but the authors show that noise trading is an important contributor to asymmetric effects. Contrary to the traditional view, introducing futures trading has no detrimental impact on the underlying markets. Futures trading improves market dynamics in processing news by transferring noise trading from spot to futures markets.

Multimarket Trading and Liquidity: A Transaction Data Analysis of Canada U.S. Interlistings

Abstract: We use transaction data for Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) listed stocks to examine the impact on trading costs of the decision to interlist on a U.S. exchange. We measure trading costs using both ?posted? bid-ask spreads and ?effective? bid-ask spreads that measure actual transaction prices relative to standing bid-ask quotes. After controlling for price level, trade size and trading volume effects, we find that overall ?posted? and ?effective? spreads in the domestic (TSE) market decrease subsequent to the interlisting. However, the decrease in trading costs is concentrated in those TSE stocks that experience a significant shift of total trading volume (TSE and U.S.) to the U.S. exchange after listing. We interpret this result in the context of theories of multi-market trading as a competitive response by TSE market makers to the additional presence of U.S. market makers.

Moving average rules, volume and the predictability of security returns with feedforward networks

Abstract: This paper uses the daily Dow Jones Industrial Average Index from 1963 to 1988 to examine the linear and non-linear predictability of stock market returns with some simple technical trading rules. Some evidence of non-linear predictability in stock market returns is found by using the past buy and sell signals of the moving average rules. In addition, past information on volume improves the forecast accuracy of current returns. The technical trading rules used in this paper are very popular and very simple. The results here suggest that it is worth while to investigate more elaborate rules and the profitability of these rules after accounting for transaction costs and brokerage fees. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Insider Trading and the Bid-Ask Spread

Abstract: This study examines the intertemporal and cross-sectional association between the bid-ask spread and insider trading. Empirical results from the cross-sectional regression analysis reveal that market makers establish larger spreads for stocks with a greater extent of insider trading. The time-series regression analysis, however, finds no evidence of spread changes on insider trading days. These results suggest that although market makers may not be able to detect insider trading when it occurs, they protect themselves by maintaining larger spreads for stocks with a greater tendency of insider trading. The results also reveal that market makers establish larger spreads when there are unusually large transactions. In addition, this study finds that spreads are positively associated with risk and negatively with trading volume, the number of exchange listings, share price, and firm size.

Market Structure, Informational Efficiency and Liquidity: An Experimental Comparison of Auction and Dealer Markets

Abstract: This paper reports the results of 18 market experiments that were conducted in order to compare the call market, the continuous auction and the dealer market. The design incorporates asymmetric information but guarantees that the ex-ante quality of the private signals of all traders is identical. Therefore, the aggregation of diverse information can be analyzed in the absence of insider trading. Single transaction prices in the call and continuous auction market are found to be much more efficient than prices in the dealer market. The latter is, however, very efficient when average prices are analyzed. Averaging the prices of a trading period largely eliminates the bid-ask spread. The conclusion is therefore that prices in a dealer market convey high quality information, but at the expense of high transaction costs. The call market, although exhibiting small pricing errors, shows a systematic tendency towards underadjustment to new information. An analysis of market liquidity using various measures proposed in the literature shows that execution costs are lowest in the call market and highest in the dealer market. The analysis also reveals that both the trading volume and Roll's (1984) serial covariance estimator are inappropriate measures of execution costs in the present context. The quality of the private signals traders receive influences portfolio structure but does not influence end-of-period wealth. This result is consistent with efficient price discovery in the experimental markets.

When an Event is Not an Event: The Curious Case of an Emerging Market

Abstract: Shares trading in the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores do not seem to react to company news. Using a sample of Mexican corporate news announcements from the period July 1994 through June 1997, this paper finds that there is nothing unusual about returns, volatility of returns, trading volume, or bid-ask spreads in the event window. We provide evidence that suggests that unrestricted insider trading causes prices to fully incorporate the information before its public release. The paper thus points toward a methodology for ranking emerging stock markets in terms of their market integrity, an approach that can be used with the limited data available in such markets.

Insider Trading: An Overview

Abstract: Insider trading is one of the most controversial aspects of securities regulation, even among the law and economics community. One set of scholars favors deregulation of insider trading, allowing corporations to set their own insider trading policies by contract. Another set of law and economics scholars, in contrast, contends that the property right to inside information should be assigned to the corporation and not subject to contractual reassignment. Deregulatory arguments are typically premised on the claims that insider trading promotes market efficiency or that assigning the property right to inside information to managers is an efficient compensation scheme. Public choice analysis is also a staple of the deregulatory literature, arguing that the insider trading prohibition benefits market professionals and managers rather than investors. The argument in favor of regulating insider trading traditionally was based on fairness issues, which predictably have had little traction in the law and economics community. Instead, the economic argument in favor of mandatory insider trading prohibitions has typically rested on some variant of the economics of property rights in information. A comprehensive bibliography is included.

Stock Prices and the Secondary Dissemination of Information: The Wall Street Journal's “Insider Trading Spotlight”Column

Abstract: In this paper we test whether a secondary dissemination of information affects stock prices. We examine stock price reactions to the publication of the “Insider Trading Spotlight”(ITS) column in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Since insider trades reported in the ITS column are initially disclosed to the public when insiders’ reports are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the information contained in the WSJ is a secondary dissemination. Around the WSJ publication day, we find significant abnormal stock performance accompanied by a significant increase in trading volume. Our evidence suggests that a secondary dissemination of information can affect stock prices if the initial public disclosure attracts only limited attention by the market. In addition, we document how insider trading information is conveyed to the market.

Exploiting international stock market correlations with open-end international mutual funds

Abstract: Investors can exploit the correlations between international stock markets by trading no-load, open-end, international mutual funds. These investors in effect cheat passive investors because they buy the mutual funds at their net asset values, which do not reflect information released during the US trading day. The strategy we examine yields an annual rate of return 800 basis points above the S&P500, over a period of almost eight years.

The Cost of Institutional Equity Trades: An Overview

Abstract: This paper examines the empirical evidence on the cost of equity trades for institutional investors. There is considerable practical and academic interest in the measurement and analysis of trading costs. We discuss some of the results that emerge from the recent literature on institutional trading costs and augment those finding with new evidence from a large sample of institutional trades. The evidence we discuss includes: (i) implicit trading costs (such as the price impact of a trade and the opportunity costs of failing to execute) are economically significant relative to explicit costs (and relative to realized portfolio returns); (ii) equity trading costs vary systematically with trade difficulty and order placement strategy; (iii) differences in market design, investment style, trading ability, and reputation are also important determinants of trading costs; (iv) even controlling for trade complexity, there is considerable variation in trading costs across institutions; (v) accurate prediction of trading costs requires more detailed data on the entire order submission process, especially information on pre-trade decision variables such as the trading horizon. We also discuss the implications of equity trading costs for policy makers and investors. For example, the concept of "best execution" is difficult to measure and, therefore, enforce for institutional investors.

Liquidity and control: A dynamic theory of corporate ownership structure

Abstract: The paper develops a theory of ownership structure based on the notion that corporate control and secondary market liquidity are not perfectly compatible with each other. We analyze the tradeoff between these two objectives for two different ownership structures: the privately held firm, which is characterized by restricted trading opportunities for owners and non-anonymous trading, and the publicly traded firm where trading opportunities are unrestricted and trading is anonymous. We develop pricing formulas for each structure, compare these with each other, and derive predictions for optimal ownership design, depending on the institutional structure of the capital market. (JEL: G 32, D 23).

A dynamic index for managed currencies funds using CME currency contracts

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to equip the investor with the tools and understanding necessary to evaluate managed currencies' investments in a meaningful way. It is shown that managed currency funds might exhibit a common factor because most of the trading managers use similar technical forecasts to trigger their positions in the financial markets. Therefore, a dynamic benchmark is built, based on technical trading rules. Using the stochastic properties of trading rules, three simple moving averages are selected and given equal weight. Then the basket of trading rules is applied to a set of currencies. The weighting between currencies is done according to volumes traded on the OTC market as observed through Reuters 2000. Such a dynamic benchmark when adjusted for the leverage and risk-free factors exhibits similar performances, namely returns and volatility, to currency traders' benchmarks. The degree of correlation is high and the tracking error is low. These results might have several implications for inst...

Information Technology and Time-Based Competition in Financial Markets

Abstract: This paper studies time-based competition in imperfect securities markets, linking IT investment decisions, information processing delays, and trading strategies. At the IT investment stage, traders trade off the cost of IT against their anticipated trading profits. At the trading stage, each trader devises a trading strategy based on his new information while taking into account the impact of both his own trades and those of other traders in the market. Our results illustrate how traders react to market imperfections due to trading costs and information processing delays, and how superior traders convert a timeliness advantage into higher trading profits. They also shed light on the relationship between the price adjustment process and traders' information processing delays. Timeliness imposes an interesting structure on trader competition: traders with longer information processing delays trade less frequently, submit smaller orders and enjoy lower profits per trade. Our analysis of traders IT investment decisions demonstrates how factors such as IT costs, number of traders, and the frequency and nature of new information affect the level of IT investments. We further illustrate how improved IT infrastructure translates into competitive advantage.

IPO Underpricing, Trading Volume, and Investor Interest

Abstract: The level of "investor interest" in an IPO prior to its issue influences its offer price, its initial return and its initial trading volume. After issue, this interest level impacts the stock's long-term trading volume, leading to a positive relationship between an IPO's initial return and its trading volume for more than three years after issuance. Using newspaper references as a proxy for the level of interest in a firm, I find that investor interest is positively related to initial return, initial trading volume and long-term trading volume.

The effects on developing countries of the Kyoto Protocol and carbon dioxide emissions trading

Abstract: The trading of rights to emit carbon dioxide has not officially been sanctioned by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but it is of interest to investigate the consequences, both for industrial (Annex B) and developing countries, of allowing such trades. The authors examine the trading of caps assigned to Annex B countries under the Kyoto Protocol and compare the outcome with a world in which Annex B countries meet with their Kyoto targets without trading. Under the trading scenario the former Soviet Union is the main seller of carbon dioxide permits and Japan, the European Union, and the United States are the main buyers. Permit trading is estimated to reduce the aggregate cost of meeting the Kyoto targets by about 50 percent, compared with no trading. Developing countries, though they do not trade, are nonetheless affected by trading. For example, the price of oil and the demand for other developing country exports are higher with trading than without. The authors also consider what might happen if developing countries were to voluntarily accept caps equal to Business as Usual Emissions and were allowed to sell emission reductions below these caps to Annex B countries. The gains from emissions trading could be big enough to give buyers and sellers incentive to support the system. Indeed, a global market for rights to emit carbon dioxide could reduce the cost of meeting the Kyoto targets by almost 90 percent, if the market were to operate competitively. The division of trading gains, however, may make a competitive outcome unlikely: Under perfect competition, the vast majority of trading gains go to buyers of permits rather than to sellers. Even markets in which the supply of permits is restricted can, however, substantially reduce the cost to Annex B countries of meeting their Kyoto targets, while yielding profits to developing countries that elect to sell permits.

The Effect of Tick Size on Price Clustering and Trading Volume

Abstract: Proposals have been made for some stock exchanges to reduce the size of their trading tick in order to lower transactions costs and, as a result, attract more trading volume and firm listings. We investigate the impact of tick size on price clustering and trading volume when the minimum price change varies with price level. Controlling the firm specific variables, we find that a smaller trading tick tends to exacerbate price clustering. Furthermore, a reduction in tick size is more likely to increase trading volume if the shares are heavily traded. These results suggest that previous studies on other stock markets may have overstated the benefits of a smaller trading tick to traders.

System and method for automated trading

Abstract: In a distributed computing environment, processes (110-150) are connected via the Internet (100) and participate in an automated market place. In the market place, a mediation process (110) receives bids and offers from negotiation processes (120, 130, 150), and completes those transactions that have matching bid/offer values. Further, in some embodiments, the mediation process (110) publishes information relating to completed transactions. The negotiation processes comprise buyer processes (120), seller processes (130) and speculator processes (150), which, given a reservation price, calculate and submit offers for the goods or resources. The negotiation processes make their calculations, in part, on the basis of the information published by the mediation process (110). Further, the negotiation processes make their calculations using heuristic algorithms and learning rules, substantially independently of user intervention.