Interactive data and retail investor decision‐making: an experimental study

The results of an experimental study of retail investors' use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language tagged (interactive) data and PDF format for making investment decisions are reported. The main finding is that data format made no difference to participants' ability to locate and integrate information from statement footnotes to improve investment decisions. Interactive data were perceived by participants as quick and ‘accurate’, but it failed to facilitate the identification of the adjustment needed to make the ratios accurate for comparison. An important implication is that regulators and software designers should work to reduce user reliance on the comparability of ratios generated automatically using interactive data.     

Is Financial Reporting Still Useful? Australian Evidence

There has been recent and growing criticism of the usefulness of financial reporting for investors, particularly the annual financial statements. In response, the IASB is pursuing several projects aimed at improving the relevance of financial information. To inform the IASB’s work, we investigate, using a mixed-method approach, the extent and nature of the use of annual financial statements by equity investors. We examine the relevance of financial reporting for equity valuation in Australia across time. We find that financial reporting (specifically, reported net income, shareholders’ equity, and operating cash flows) remains relevant for investment decisions. We further support this finding with evidence from field interviews that provide insight into how and why financial statements are used by equity investors. The field evidence also demonstrates that no one financial statement dominates in investor decision making. Given the increasing availability of more timely, forward-looking information from alternative sources, we examine the relevance of non-GAAP financial information and other non-financial information for investor decision making. We find that non-GAAP financial information (as proxied by EBIT and EBITDA) is more value relevant than statutory measures. We further find a broad range of non-financial information is utilized by investors in making investment decisions both as a ‘screen’ and for valuation purposes. Our findings inform regulators and other stakeholders as we provide evidence of the continuing relevance of financial statements and the complementary role of non-GAAP financial and other information. Our evidence provides a rebuttal to the recent criticism.     

Overconfidence in investment decisions: An experimental approach

Abstract

By experimentally inducing risk aversion, overconfidence in an investment setting is investigated, comparing the evaluation of actual investment decisions with alternative choices. After selecting their own investment, subjects confront three alternative investment choices, including the optimal one, and are asked about their willingness to pay and to substitute their own for alternative choices. Overconfidence is defined as the persistent overevaluation of the own investment decision. Results indicate that overconfidence increases (i) with the absolute deviation from optimal choices, (ii) with task complexity involving the number of risky assets, and (iii) decreases with individual perceived uncertainty.     

资产配置中的投资时钟模型

投资时钟模型是将资产配置和行业策略同经济周期相联系的资产配置方法。经济周期划分为衰退、复苏、过热和滞胀四个阶段,各阶段都对应着收益表现超过一般市场的某一特定资产类别:债券、股票、大宗商品和现金。投资时钟模型还可以帮助资产配置的行业选择。在经济复苏阶段,投资于成长性的周期性行业;在过热阶段,投资于价值性的周期性行业;在滞胀时期,投资于价值型的防御性行业;在衰退时期,投资于成长性的防御性行业。     

Realization utility

A number of authors have suggested that investors derive utility from realizing gains and losses on assets that they own. We present a model of this “realization utility,” analyze its predictions, and show that it can shed light on a number of puzzling facts. These include the disposition effect, the poor trading performance of individual investors, the higher volume of trade in rising markets, the effect of historical highs on the propensity to sell, the individual investor preference for volatile stocks, the low average return of volatile stocks, and the heavy trading associated with highly valued assets.     

净现值与内部收益率在投资决策中的选用

净现值和内部收益率是投资决策中最常用的两个主要指标,但是,通过深入分析我们发现,后者在满足净效益最大化决策目标、假设条件的经济合理性以及普遍适用性三个方面均存在严重缺陷,因而不是一个可靠的项目价值衡量指标,最多只能用作决策的参考,不能用作项目取舍的依据。     

Are family and friends the wrong investors? Evidence from U.S. start-ups

This paper investigates the effects of funding from family and friends (i.e., informal funding) on subsequent access to venture capital for start-up firms. We retrieve information on financing activity of young U.S. firms from a novel dataset based on private placements filings (Form Ds). To address potential endogeneity issues, we use an instrument that hinges on the family size of founders as an exogenous constraint on the supply of informal funds. Our results show that informal finance significantly reduces the probability of future financing events. We provide suggestive evidence that this is due to conflicts of interests between informal stakeholders and professional investors.     

Staged Financing of Start-ups

From a theoretical perspective, staged financing of start-ups mainly serves to reduce agency risks for investors dealing with founders. This risk reduction is partly offset by the transaction costs caused by staged financing. From the perspective of founders, staging can reduce the cost of equity, but it also increases the share of external company and market risks they have to bear. Our empirical study of a sample of German start-ups confirms the importance of transaction costs and shifting external risk for staging decisions, but does not support agency theoretical explanations of staged financing.     

Financial constraints and continental business groups: Evidence from German Konzerns

Using a unique large panel of German firms, we examine whether participation in business groups (Konzerns) reduces the sensitivity of investment to cash flow. The main finding is that the investment sensitivity is significantly reduced for small firms. On the other hand, we do not find clear evidence that medium-sized and large firms participating in Konzerns have different sensitivity compared to that of their stand-alone counterparts. We conclude that the German business model, which embodies key elements of the continental business model, seems to alleviate capital market imperfections for medium-sized and large firms and fails to do so for small firms.     

Wikipedia pageviews as investors’ attention indicator for Nasdaq

The attempt to measure investors’ mood to find an early indicator of financial markets has evolved and developed with the advancement of technology over the years. The first attempts were based on surveys, a long and expensive process. Nowadays, big data has made it possible to measure the investor’s mood accurately and almost entirely online. This paper analyzes the explanatory and predictive capacity of Wikipedia pageviews for the Nasdaq index. For this purpose, two econometric models have been developed. In both models, the explanatory variable is the number of Wikipedia visits, and the endogenous variable is Nasdaq index return. As an alternative to this approach, an algorithmic trading system has been developed. It uses Wikipedia visits as investment signals for long and short positions to check the predictability power of this indicator. It is determined that the volume of queries about Nasdaq companies is a statistically significant variable for expressing the evolution of this index. However, it has no predictive capacity. Keeping in mind the capacity of Wikipedia to exemplify Nasdaq trends, further studies should be conducted to determine how to make this indicator profitable.     

Effect of personal taxes on managers’ decisions to sell their stock

We examine the effect of personal taxes on CEOs’ decisions to sell their equity, controlling for diversification, managerial overconfidence, and other determinants. While CEOs frequently sell large amounts of their unrestricted firm equity, the tax burden associated with the sale significantly deters them from selling equity even after controlling for other determinants like diversification. We also find that both taxable institutional investors and CEOs respond to taxes in their selling of equity, although CEOs appear to be less tax-sensitive. Our findings underscore the importance of taxes in corporate and managerial decisions and they have implications for executive compensation policies.     

黄金投资能够对抗通货膨胀吗——兼论对商业银行黄金业务发展的启示

文章从不同角度考察了黄金的保值效果,在此基础上,立足黄金投资风险,结合当前国内商业银行黄金业务发展提出了相关的政策建议。     

盈利要求与投资决策

本讨论了公司盈利要求对经理投资决策行为的影响，并进一步将该结果与社会最优结果进行了比较分析。本研究结果表明，较高的盈利要求将导致经理选择高风险的投资项目，即使该投资项目的预期收益未必高于低风险投资项目。从社会福利最优角度来看，盈利要求对社会福利的影响取决于公司所面临的投资环境和投资项目性质。