Bid‐ask spreads,volatility, quote revisions,and trades of thinly traded futures contracts

We investigate intraday bid‐ask spreads (BAS), volatility, and trading activity of thinly traded equity index futures contracts on the Singapore Exchange. Contrary to previous findings, we find a rather flat BAS pattern during the trading day. However, consistent with past findings, an increase in risk widens the spread and a higher trading activity reduces it. When trading occurs in a day, spreads are reduced. No significant difference in volatility between days with and without trades was detected. When trades occur, quote revisions increase, and it is positively related to the number of trades. An increase in the number of quote revisions increases the likelihood of a transaction, and when quotes are current, revisions that are accompanied by trades carry new information. We provide evidence that contracts that are thinly traded may possess liquidity attributes as long as their price quotes remain current. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 23:455–486, 2003     

Commonality in liquidity: Evidence from the Stock Exchange of Thailand

This study examines commonality in liquidity of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) using a limited order book data from 1996 to 2003. Strong evidence is found for market-wide commonality in liquidity, which prevails across several liquidity measurements. Industry-wide commonality is found to be stronger than market-wide commonality in liquidity. However, we do not find a market-wide correlated liquidity supply imbalance. There is evidence that indicates a fall in individual liquidity on Monday and after a day with a positive return.     

Time series momentum and moving average trading rules

We compare and contrast time series momentum (TSMOM) and moving average (MA) trading rules so as to better understand the sources of their profitability. These rules are closely related; however, there are important differences. TSMOM signals occur at points that coincide with a MA direction change, whereas MA buy (sell) signals only require price to move above (below) a MA. Our empirical results show MA rules frequently give earlier signals leading to meaningful return gains. Both rules perform best outside of large stock series which may explain the puzzle of their popularity with investors, yet lack of supportive evidence in academic studies.     

Real exchange rates,asset prices and terms of trade: A theoretical analysis

This paper develops a continuous-time two-country dynamic equilibrium model, in which the real exchange rates, asset prices, and terms of trade are jointly determined in the presence of nontradable goods. The model determines the relation between the financial markets and real goods markets in the world economy and their responses to various shocks under the home bias assumption. A positive domestic supply shock induces a positive return on the domestic asset markets and a deterioration of terms of trade that improves the foreign output and boosts the foreign asset markets. Demand shocks act in the opposite way. This model also analyses the impact of change in the relative price of nontradable to tradable goods on the terms of trade and asset markets. A higher productivity growth in tradable goods than in nontradable goods leads to a higher relative price of nontradable to tradable goods, which appreciates the real exchange rate, deteriorates the terms of trade, and depresses the domestic and foreign asset markets. A lower relative price of nontradable goods depreciates the real exchange rate, improves the terms of trade, and lifts both the domestic and foreign asset markets.     

Liquidity commonality in commodities

We examine liquidity commonality in commodity futures markets. Using data from 16 agricultural, energy, industrial metal, precious metal, and livestock commodities, we show there is a strong systematic liquidity factor in commodities. Liquidity commonality was present in 1997–2003 when commodity prices were relatively stable and during the recent boom. There is some support for both “supply-side” and “demand-side” explanations for this commonality. We find no evidence of a consistent link between stock and commodity liquidity in general. Energy commodities appear to provide a better hedge against equity market liquidity risk than the other commodity families.     

ETF arbitrage: Intraday evidence

We use two extremely liquid S&P 500 ETFs to analyze the prevailing trading conditions when mispricing allowing arbitrage opportunities is created. While these ETFs are not perfect substitutes, our correlation and error correction results suggest investors view them as close substitutes. Spreads increase just before arbitrage opportunities, consistent with a decrease in liquidity. Order imbalance increases as markets become more one-sided and spread changes become more volatile which suggests an increase in liquidity risk. The price deviations are followed by a tendency to quickly correct back towards parity.     

Non-audit fees, institutional monitoring, and audit quality

We posit that the effect of non-audit fees on audit quality is conditional on the extent of institutional monitoring. We suggest that institutional investors have incentives and the ability to monitor financial reporting quality. Because of the reputation concerns and potential litigation exposure, auditors are likely to provide high audit quality, when they also provide non-audit services to clients, particularly when clients are subject to high institutional monitoring. We find evidence that, as non-audit fees increase, audit quality (measured by performance-adjusted discretionary current accruals and earnings-response coefficients) reduces only for clients with low institutional ownership but not for clients with high institutional ownership. Our results are robust after controlling for auditor industry specialization, firms’ operating volatility, size effect, and potential endogeneity between institutional ownership and audit quality.     

Information asymmetry in warrants and their underlying stocks on the stock exchange of Thailand

This paper examines the informational role of warrants based on the unique order data from the Stock Exchange of Thailand, where both warrants and stocks are traded under the same market structure and where warrants are as liquid as stocks. The estimated probability of informed trading (PIN) in warrants is found to be statistically higher than their underlying stocks regardless of order submission type and order size. The PIN explains a substantial portion of the cross-sectional variation in the opening spread beyond trading volume and minimum tick size. We find evidence that a signed warrant trade contains information about the future stock price and that warrants with a higher PIN have greater predictive powers.     

Speed of convergence to market efficiency for NYSE-listed foreign stocks

This paper contributes to the cross-listing literature by documenting the speed of convergence to market efficiency for foreign stocks listed on the NYSE. We find that, on average, it takes 30–60 minutes for a foreign stock to achieve market efficiency. For a comparable US stock, it takes only 10–15 minutes. The significant difference between foreign and US stocks remains robust when the speed is measured by the number of transactions rather than in calendar time. After relevant firm characteristics are controlled for, the time that it takes for foreign stocks to reach efficiency is significantly negatively related to the quality of their home country institutions. We find that one possible channel through which institutions affect the speed is through their impact on information asymmetry.     

Changing dividend policies caused by the Tax Reform Act of 1986: An empirical analysis

In this paper the authors analyze the change in dividend yield (and capital gains yield) patterns of the group of 1108 firms listed on the monthly CRSP tapes from 1984 to 1988. It was anticipated that the Tax Reform Act of 1986 would lead to a pattern of increasing dividend yields and decreasing capital gains yields in 1987 and 1988 due to the elimination of the capital gains tax rate by 1988 and the overall reduction in personal tax rates. The results were consistent across all dividend groups as expected.