Determinants of bid and ask quotes and implications for the cost of trading

Financial transaction costs are time varying. This paper proposes a model that relates transaction cost to characteristics of order flow. We obtain qualitatively consistent model results for different stocks and across different time periods. We find that an unusual excess of buyers (sellers) relative to sellers (buyers) tends to increase the ask (bid) price. Hence, the ask and bid components of spread change asymmetrically about the efficient price. For a fixed order imbalance surprise these effects are muted when unanticipated total volume is high. Unexpected high volatility in the transaction price process tends to widen the spread symmetrically about the efficient price. Our findings are consistent with predications from market microstructure theory that the cost of market making should depend on both the risk of trading with better-informed traders and inventory risk. We also find that order flow surprises have a significant impact on the efficient price and can also explain a substantial amount of persistence in the volatility of the efficient price. This dependence does not violate the efficient market hypothesis since the surprises, by definition, are not predictable.     

Who moves the stock market in an emerging country – Institutional or retail investors?

By analyzing the dynamic behavior of institutional and retail investors in the Indonesia Stock Exchange using their completed transactions (comprising over 250 million observations), this study highlights that their trading strategies and behavior, in which institutions play a more important role than individuals in the market, are indeed different. Specifically, past trading activities by individual (institutional) investors have significantly affected the current trading behaviors and strategies of individual investors (both investor types). Furthermore, retail (institutional) investors are most likely to perform contrarian (momentum) strategies and trade frequently (infrequently) with small (large) amounts of money and short (long) holding periods.     

不完全竞争、交易效率和证券风险

本文提出了一种崭新的理论观点———不完全竞争的市场结构是证券风险的一个重要来源,并利用市场数据进行了实证分析。此外,本文还发现不完全竞争的市场结构会通过影响买卖双方的交易策略而降低市场的交易效率。     

Competition between financial markets in Europe: what can be expected from MiFID?

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) could be the foundation of new trading platforms in Europe. This contribution employs insights from the theoretical and empirical literature to highlight some of the possible implications of MiFID. In particular, we argue that more competition will lead to more liquid markets, reflected in lower bid–ask spreads and greater depth. It will also lead to innovation in incumbent markets and stimulate the design of new trading platforms. MiFID has already introduced more competition, as evidenced by the startup of Instinet Chi-X, the announcement of new initiatives, including Project Turquoise and BATS, and the reactions of incumbent exchanges.

台湾证券柜台交易市场结构及其混合交易模式研究

台湾证券柜台交易市场在促进台湾中小型高科技企业的快速成长和规范非上市公开发行公司的股权报价转让等方面发挥着不可替代的重要作用。本文详细考察了台湾证券柜台交易市场上柜股票和兴柜股票的交易模式,研究表明兴柜市场实行的以分散报价、集中成交的竞争性做市商交易模式具有内在的制度优势,是适宜个人投资者为主的柜台交易市场。台湾柜台交易中心取得成功的关键在于,以满足柜台交易市场交易性需求、流动性需求、波动性需求和透明度需求为基础,通过构建合理的市场结构创造性地引入包括竞价交易机制在内、与市场功能和交易对象的风险特性相适应的混合交易模式。     

Tick size change on the Stock Exchange of Thailand

This paper explores the impact of an exogenous tick size reduction on bid-ask spreads, depths, and trading volume on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). On November 5, 2001, the SET implemented a tick size reduction on stocks priced below THB 25. Even though trading on SET is largely dominated by retail investors, the tick reduction produces similar empirical results found in markets where institutional investors are more dominant. Tick reduction on the SET is associated with declines in spreads, and quoted and accumulated market depths. The study finds no significant change in trading volume due to the reduction.

A change in market microstructure: the switch to electronic screen trading on the New Zealand stock exchange

The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZSE) switched from open outcry trading to an electronic screen trading system on June 24, 1991. The change was made by the members of the exchange to improve the trading system and to reduce costs. This paper investigates empirically whether improvement was achieved through a reduction in transaction costs. The tests and results focus on order-flow migration to the exchange from alternative execution locations and changes in bid-ask spreads. On balance, we conclude that transaction costs have declined.     

Dynamic liquidation under market impact

The optimal liquidation problem with transaction costs, which includes a positive fixed cost, and market impact costs, is studied in this paper as a constrained stochastic optimal control problem. We assume that trading is instantaneous and the dynamics of the stock to be liquidated follows a geometric Brownian motion. The solution to the impulse control problem is computed at each time step by solving a linear partial differential equation and a maximization problem. In contrast to results obtained from the static formulation of Almgren and Chriss [J. Risk, 2000 Almgren, R and Chriss, N. 2000. Optimal execution of portfolio transactions. J. Risk, 3: 5–39. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 3, 5–39], when risk is not considered, the optimal liquidation strategy from our stochastic control formulation depends on temporary market impact cost and permanent market impact cost parameters. In addition, our computational results indicate the following properties of the optimal execution strategy from the stochastic control formulation. Due to the existence of a no-transaction region, it may not be optimal for some individuals to sell their assets on some trading dates. As the value of the permanent market impact parameter increases, the expected optimal amount liquidated at the terminal time increases. As the value of the quadratic temporary impact cost parameter increases, the expected optimal amount liquidated at trading times tends to be uniform, and the no-transaction region shrinks. In the presence of quadratic temporary market impact costs, in contrast to optimal strategies that result from fixed and/or proportional transaction costs alone, portfolios in the selling region are neither re-balanced into the no-transaction region nor into the sell and no-transaction interface.     

Round-the-clock market efficiency and home bias: Evidence from the international Japanese government bonds futures markets

This paper examines how information is processed between almost identical international futures markets: London (LIFFE) and Tokyo (TSE) JGB futures. In these markets, variations in open-to-open changes are virtually the same as those of close-to-close changes, suggesting that information is transmitted efficiently across markets with small opening pricing errors. The overall results confirm market efficiency around the clock, yet the intraday U-shaped patterns in volume/volatility of the London JGB futures suggest home bias in international investments, indicating a less global view of trading than expected. Specifically, at the LIFFE open, London investors rush to rebalance portfolios instead of doing so at the TSE close, which is only one hour before the LIFFE opens.     

The information content of trading halts

We investigate the impact of trading halts of NYSE-listed stocks on informationally related securities that continue to trade during the period of the halt. Informational relationships are established for companies in the same four-digit SIC industry based on the correlation of returns, volume, volatility, and the adverse selection components of spreads. We find a significant liquidity impact on informationally related securities with spreads and price impact of trades having substantial increases. However, we also find that quoted depths, the number of trades, and trade volume significantly increase. Our results are consistent with the trading halt model of Spiegel and Subrahmanyam [2000. Asymmetric information and news disclosure rules. Journal of Financial Intermediation 9, 363–403] and with the informed trading model of Tookes [2008. Information, trading, and product market interactions: cross-sectional implications of informed trading. Journal of Finance 63, 379–413]. In addition, our results indicate that there is a common liquidity response of informationally related securities to firm-specific trading halts.     

Do aggressive orders affect liquidity? An evidence from an emerging market

This paper investigates how aggressive orders affect spreads and trading activity measures on the stock market. Based on a sample of stocks listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange this study finds that spreads and trading activity measures increase significantly when aggressive orders are executed, but quickly revert to initial levels. The reaction to these orders on the bid and ask side of the market is similar. The effect of aggressive orders differ depending on the size of the firms. Trading activity measures such as volumes or number of transactions increase stronger for bigger than for smaller stocks, while spreads increase more for smaller firms than for bigger ones. These findings enrich the understanding of liquidity dynamics especially on the emerging markets where liquidity is an important price formation factor.