Short selling,margin trading,and the incorporation of new information into prices

Utilizing daily data on Chinese stocks' short selling and margin trading activities and intraday stock trade and quote data, we find a positive association between the degree of information efficiency of stock prices and the intensity of short selling and margin trading. Short selling (margin buying) escalates during the 5 days immediately before significant negative (positive) information events, which suggests short sellers (margin buyers) anticipate forthcoming news. Using the adverse selection component of the bid–ask spread as a proxy, we find that short selling and margin trading are associated with an improved information environment. Taken together, our empirical evidence supports the conjecture that short selling and margin trading in the Chinese market help stock prices incorporate new information more efficiently. Utilizing the unique Chinese regulation, we also examine the role of brokerages authorized for such trading and document a non-linear relation between pricing efficiency and the number of authorized brokerages.     

卖空机制能够约束内部人减持吗？——基于融资融券制度的经验证据

本文以我国放松卖空管制为视角,探究其对内部人减持的影响。研究表明,卖空机制能够抑制企业内部人减持行为。机制分析发现,卖空对内部人减持的抑制作用是通过缓解股权高溢价实现的。进一步研究表明,卖空能够抑制大股东、董事以及管理层减持,但对监事减持无影响;卖空能够降低内部人减持的获利程度,并且在内部人减持动机更大时,对内部人减持的抑制作用更强;卖空通过约束内部人减持提升了股票定价效率,还有助于降低内部人增持行为。本文的研究结论丰富了卖空和内部人减持领域的文献,并对政府部门完善制度设计具有启示意义。     

中国式卖空机制与高管减持——基于融资融券分步扩容的准自然实验

本文以我国的融资融券制度为背景,结合双重差分模型,研究卖空机制对上市公司高管减持行为的影响。研究发现,相对于非融券标的,可融券标的公司高管的月减持比例在允许卖空后下降22%,这种抑制作用在小规模、高盈余平滑度以及非国有公司中体现得更为明显。其次,成为可融券标的后,股价定价效率提高,高管减持收益显著下降。进一步地,本文将高管的减持行为分为定期性与投机性两类,发现卖空机制显著抑制了高管基于信息优势和股价偏差的投机性减持行为。     

基于小波CCC-GARCH模型的融资融券交易与证券市场波动率关系研究

以2010年4月2日～2016年7月21日的中国证券市场交易数据为样本,运用小波CCC-GARCH模型,考量融资融券交易对证券市场波动率的影响.结果表明,融资交易行为对证券市场收益率和成交量的波动均有较显著的影响,而融券交易对市场波动率的影响不显著.同时,融资交易行为对市场的影响主要由高频信号所驱动,投资者短期非理性行为或噪音交易对市场波动的影响较大.为促进市场的健康发展,应均衡融资融券业务的发展,培养理性机构投资者,加强投资者风险警示加快融资融券数据库的建设.     

卖空限制与收益可预测性——A股融资融券制度的证据

基于A股市场融资和融券余额的巨大差距,本文拓展了Hong et al.(2016)的理论模型,在融券端和融资端分别找到了影响股票收益率的变量:融券比率(融券余额/流通市值)和融资回补天数(融资比率/日均换手率)。进一步,本文利用组合价差法和Fama-MacBeth横截面回归法,实证检验了A股市场中融券比率与融资回补天数解释和预测股票收益率的能力。实证结果表明,在存在融券限制条件下,融券比率相比融券回补天数(融券比率/日均换手率)能更好地代表套利者对股票价格高估程度的看法,根据融券比率构建的等权重多空组合能带来月均1.58%的显著收益;而由于融资约束相对较少,融资回补天数相比融资比率(融资余额/流通市值)能更好地代表套利者对股票价格低估程度的看法,根据融资回补天数构建的等权重多空组合能带来月均1.28%的显著收益。实证结果与本文存在融券数量限制下的理论模型相符,且该收益率不能被多因子模型和常规股票特征所解释。     

Short-selling restrictions and firms’ environment responsibility

We examine the effect of short selling on firms’ environmental pollution control behavior. Using novel data from Chinese listed firms, we demonstrate that when the short selling of stocks is permitted, the respective firms invest more in pollution protection. Consequently, ex ante threats to short selling could potentially explain firms’ investment in pollution protection. In contrast, we do not find a positive relation between margin trading and firms’ pollution protection expenses. We further discover that the effect of short selling is more pronounced in firms with lower institutional ownership and lower market competition. These findings shed light on the role of short sales in pollution abatement.     

卖空者与内幕交易——来自中国证券市场的证据

本文研究上市公司内部人减持、年报、诉讼、分析师评级、停复牌以及高送转等重大公告前后卖空交易行为的变化,系统考察卖空者是否参与内幕交易以及何种因素影响卖空者参与内幕交易,发现卖空率较高的股票具有较低的未来收益,表明卖空者拥有信息优势,属知情交易者;卖空者拥有非常精确的择时交易能力,在重大利空公告前显著增加卖空量,而在利好公告前则显著减少卖空头寸,表明卖空者作为知情交易者的信息优势源自内幕消息;公司内、外部投资者的信息不对称程度越低或公司所在地的法治水平越高,卖空者参与内幕交易的行为就越少。因此,监管机构应密切关注公司重大消息发布前后卖空量的异常变动,同时,完善信息披露规则、健全证券分析师制度并强化法律法规的执行力度,才能有效防范卖空者参与内幕交易。     

卖空限制与收益可预测性——A股融资融券制度的证据

基于A股市场融资和融券余额的巨大差距,本文拓展了Hong et al.(2016)的理论模型,在融券端和融资端分别找到了影响股票收益率的变量:融券比率(融券余额/流通市值)和融资回补天数(融资比率/日均换手率)。进一步,本文利用组合价差法和Fama-MacBeth横截面回归法,实证检验了A股市场中融券比率与融资回补天数解释和预测股票收益率的能力。实证结果表明,在存在融券限制条件下,融券比率相比融券回补天数(融券比率/日均换手率)能更好地代表套利者对股票价格高估程度的看法,根据融券比率构建的等权重多空组合能带来月均1.58%的显著收益;而由于融资约束相对较少,融资回补天数相比融资比率(融资余额/流通市值)能更好地代表套利者对股票价格低估程度的看法,根据融资回补天数构建的等权重多空组合能带来月均1.28%的显著收益。实证结果与本文存在融券数量限制下的理论模型相符,且该收益率不能被多因子模型和常规股票特征所解释。     

Does Anticipated Information Impose a Cost on Risk‐Averse Investors? A Test of the Hirshleifer Effect

This paper theoretically and empirically investigates how the risk of future adverse price changes created by the anticipated arrival of information influences risk‐averse investors’ trading decisions in institutionally imperfect capital markets. Specifically, I examine how the selling activity of individual investors immediately following an earnings announcement is influenced by the tradeoff between risk‐sharing benefits of immediate trade and explicit transaction costs imposed on such trades. Consistent with my theoretically derived predictions, I find that investors’ current trading decisions are less sensitive to the incremental transaction costs created by short‐term capital gains taxes on trading profits, as both the duration and intensity of the risk of future adverse price changes increase. This evidence is consistent with an incremental cost to investors that results from the revelation of precise information, which is commonly referred to as the Hirshleifer Effect.     

Against the tide: the commencement of short selling and margin trading in mainland China

China's recent removal of short‐selling and margin trading bans on selected stocks enables testing of the relative effect of margin trading and short selling. We find the prices of the shortable stocks decrease, on average, relative to peer A‐shares and cross‐listed H‐shares, suggesting that short selling dominates margin trading effects. Contrary to the regulators' intention and recent developed market empirical evidence, liquidity declines and bid‐ask spreads increase in these shortable stocks. Consistent with Ausubel (1990), these results imply that uninformed investors avoid the shortable stocks to reduce the risk of trading with informed investors.     

Has the CDS market lowered the cost of corporate debt?

Many have claimed that credit default swaps (CDSs) have lowered the cost of debt financing to firms by creating new hedging opportunities and information for investors. This paper evaluates the impact that the onset of CDS trading has on the spreads that underlying firms pay to raise funding in the corporate bond and syndicated loan markets. Employing a range of methodologies, we fail to find evidence that the onset of CDS trading lowers the cost of debt financing for the average borrower. Further, we uncover economically significant adverse effects on risky and informationally opaque firms.     

Can short selling improve internal control? An empirical study based on the difference‐in‐differences model

Based on pilot margin trading in China, this study examines how short selling affects internal control quality in listed firms. Using the difference‐in‐differences approach, we find that compared with control firms, firms that are eligible for short selling significantly improve their internal control after they are designated as underlying securities. We consider the effects of state ownership and external auditors. The improvement in internal control is only significant for non‐state‐owned firms and firms audited by non‐Big 4 auditors. These findings indicate that short selling can improve firms’ internal control and play a role in their corporate governance.     

Predicting earnings in a poor information environment

Financial intermediaries, such as analysts, play an important role in providing information to investors. However, a large segment of the market (about 39% of CRSP firms between 1992 and 2009) is not served by financial analysts, leaving investors in a poor information environment. In this paper, we examine whether other publicly available information signals, such as insider trades, institutional holdings, and firms’ stock repurchases, can be used to predict information about earnings for these firms. We find that CFOs’ trading decisions are associated with new information contained in the annual earnings reports for firms with no or scant analyst coverage. In contrast, for firms with multiple analyst coverage, insider trading decisions are not predictive of new information in earnings reports. Our results suggest that some public information signals, such as insider trades, can be used to alleviate the poor information environment faced by investors. However, the market may not have fully priced the information contained in these signals.     

Does the investment horizon of institutional investors matter for stock liquidity?

This paper examines the role of the investment horizon of institutional investors on stock liquidity of firms. We show that an increase in long-term institutional ownership is negatively associated with firm liquidity, while an increase in short-term ownership is positively related to a firm's stock liquidity. We identify the ownership-liquidity relationship by examining two major channels: the trading activity channel and the informational friction channel. Long-term investors reduce stock liquidity through low frequency trading and access to value-enhancing and private information, which induces adverse selection bias. In contrast, short-term investors improve liquidity through trading activity and competition with other investors, which lowers transaction costs. Our findings further suggest that the effects of an increase in long-term (short-term) institutional investors on liquidity weaken (strengthen) when a firm has more publicly available information. Finally, we show that the positive impact of an increase in long-term ownership on valuation is more pronounced for firms with higher liquidity and the valuation effect is persistent.     

Regulation FD, accounting restatements and transient institutional investors’ trading behavior

We examine the impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure (RFD) on transient institutional investors’ abnormal trading behavior around accounting restatements. We find that while in the pre-RFD period, transient institutional investors exhibit abnormal selling of restating firms’ stocks one quarter before the restatement is publicly announced, in the post-RFD period there is no such abnormal selling. Furthermore, we find that this phenomenon is driven by (a) firms with low analyst following (i.e., firms with poor information environment), (b) firms with high stock price reaction to earnings surprise (i.e., firms with high informativeness of earnings), (c) firms where the restatements’ impact on earnings is high, and (d) firms with non-revenue related restatements.     

The effect of economic policy uncertainty on investor information asymmetry and management disclosures

Investor uncertainty about firm value drives investors’ information collection and trading activities, as well as managers’ disclosure choices. This study examines an important source of uncertainty that likely cannot be influenced by most managers and investors: uncertainty about government economic policy. We find that this uncertainty is associated with increased bid-ask spreads and decreased stock price reactions to earnings surprises. Managers respond to this uncertainty by increasing their voluntary disclosures, but these disclosures only partly mitigate the bid-ask spread increase. We conclude that government economic policy uncertainty is an important component of firms’ information environments and managers’ voluntary disclosure decisions.     

Short-selling,margin-trading,and stock liquidity: Evidence from the Chinese stock markets

This paper examines the impacts of two forms of leveraged trading—margin trading and short selling—on the trading liquidity of individual stocks in China. We find that trading liquidity for relevant stocks generally improves after restrictions on leveraged trading are removed. However, margin trading and short selling have opposite impacts on liquidity. During ordinary periods, margin trading benefits liquidity, whereas short selling damages liquidity; however, during market downturns, their roles are reversed. We also provide evidence suggesting that short sellers are informed traders in China and that short selling reduces stock liquidity because of the increased risk of adverse selection faced by uninformed traders.     

放松卖空管制能够抑制并购商誉泡沫吗？

本文以我国放松卖空管制作为切入点,系统检验了其对并购商誉泡沫的影响。研究发现,放松卖空管制之后,超额商誉显著下降,同时商誉资产也显著下降,且该效应在民营控股公司中更显著;机制检验发现,卖空通过吸引更多分析师跟踪、增加对管理者的激励来抑制商誉泡沫;进一步研究发现,在市场化水平较高、行业竞争度较低的情形下,卖空机制对商誉泡沫的抑制作用更强。本文的研究结论丰富了卖空和并购商誉领域的文献,并为以市场导向原则化解并购商誉泡沫提供了新思路和新范式。     

Trading behaviour and market sentiment: Firm-level evidence from an emerging Islamic market

We provide firm-level evidence from an emerging Islamic market that individual investors' trading behaviour causes weekend sentiment. Using data for 285 companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) for the period from 2002 to 2019 and applying appropriate econometric techniques, the paper has found evidence of weekend effect both on return and volatility. The results confirm that individual investors' sentiment drives the weekend effect in DSE. ‘Information content theory’ and ‘information processing hypothesis’ work for investors so that the market return and volatility become significantly different on Sunday. The market sentiment effect is significant for smaller firms and low dividend yield firms where individual investors are prevalent, suggesting that trading behaviour of individual investors determines weekend sentiment. A positive feedback relationship exists between returns on Sunday and the previous Thursday for both institutions and individuals. Our results are robust in various alternative specifications.     

An empirical analysis of the determinants and pricing of corporate bond clawbacks

This paper presents empirical analysis of the factors that affect a firm's decision to use a clawback provision in debt and the yield impact of including the clawback provision. The results show that relatively smaller firms with low credit rating and low profitability favor the usage of clawback provisions. We also find that debt with clawback provisions have the highest yield spread followed by callable bonds and straight debt. Convertible bonds that offer investors the option to convert to equity have lower yield spread. This implies that issuers can trade off flexibility for higher interest cost and that the clawback feature may be a significant financial innovation which reduces information asymmetry and creates an entry point for small firms to gain access to the public bond markets.