Margin trading,short selling,and bond yield spread

Using a quasi-natural experiment, this study examines the effects of margin trading and short selling on bond yield spread in China. It finds that both margin trading and short selling can reduce bond yield spread. Additionally, it finds that margin trading lowers firms’ debt ratios and increases their credit ratings, which explains the reduced spread. In other words, margin trading can impact investors’ decisions by revealing positive information about a firm. Another finding is that short selling lowers the bond yield spread by decreasing earnings management, suggesting that short selling has an impact on investors’ decisions through its effect on corporate governance. Our results suggest that margin trading transmits positive information and short selling impacts firms’ policies. These results provide support for future regulations of margin trading and short selling.     

Short selling,margin buying and stock return in China market

It is well argued that short sellers are informed traders, and short interests predict future stock returns significantly. However, most researches neglect margin buyers, as twin sisters of short sellers, and keep silent about their impact on stock returns. In this article, we demonstrate that margin buyers significantly impact predictive power of conventional short measures. We document that conventional short measures neglecting margin‐buying activities, short interest ratio (SIR) and days to cover (DTC) fail to predict stock return unless our analysis is confined to lightly margin bought stocks. We also show that short‐margin trading ratio (SMTR), revised short measure with consideration of margin buying, predict stock return more sharply. What is more, we can form profitable portfolios by the new short measure.     

Effect of the ban on short selling on market prices and volatility

We examine the effects of the short‐selling ban, imposed by Australian regulators in the wake of the global financial crisis, on the trading of financial stocks. Our findings argue against commonly stated reasons for imposing short‐sale bans. We find no evidence that short‐sale restrictions provide support for stock prices or that they reduce volatility. Moreover, stocks subject to the short‐selling ban suffered a severe degradation in market quality. Controlling for the adverse effects of the financial crisis on markets, we show that short‐selling restrictions increase intraday volatility, reduce trading activity and increase bid–ask spreads.     

The determinants of short selling: evidence from the Hong Kong equity market

While most financial regulators agree that short sellers have an important role to play in ensuring an efficiently functioning market, it is interesting to note that many did not hesitate to ban short selling during the recent financial crisis. This apparent contradiction most likely stems from a lack of understanding about what motivates short trading. In this paper, we focus on the determinants of short selling during ‘normal’ trading in the Hong Kong stock market. We find that dividend payments, company fundamentals, risk, option trading, the interest rate spread and past returns and short selling are all significant determinants of short selling.     

Informed trading on debt covenant violations: the long and short of it

We examine whether disclosure of complex information events reduces information asymmetry by investigating the long‐ and short‐term impact of firms' disclosure of debt covenant violations on the probability of informed trading. We argue debt covenant violation disclosures provide informed agents with a long window of opportunity to trade on their private information largely due to the uncertainty arising from the debt renegotiation process. We find the probability of informed trading is greater after the disclosure, particularly when the violation outcomes are unresolved or where there is concern about possible future violations.     

Doing battle with short sellers: The conflicted role of blockholders in bear raids

If short sellers can destroy firm value by manipulating prices down, an informed blockholder has a powerful natural incentive to protect the value of his stake by trading against them. However, he also has a potentially conflicting incentive to use his information to generate trading profits. We show that a speculator can exploit this conflict and force the blockholder to buy a disproportionately large amount to prevent value destruction. This is costly for the blockholder because the trades must sometimes be executed at inflated prices. Given reasonable constraints on short sellers, a sufficiently large blockholder will have the incentive to absorb these losses and prevent a bear raid. However, conditions exist under which outside intervention may be warranted.     

The costs and benefits of short sale disclosure

In this study, we examine the impact of a market-wide mandatory disclosure policy on short selling on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. We find that average short selling slightly declined while investors’ shorting strategies changed significantly in response to the disclosure. Previously highly shorted stocks were shorted less and shorting activity shifted toward smaller and riskier stocks, suggesting that retail investors became the more likely short sellers. Short sales became more trend-chasing, prices became less informative, and short-term price volatility increased. Overall, the pricing efficiency benefits of short selling declined after the mandatory disclosure policy.     

Which financial stocks did short sellers target in the subprime crisis?

Tracing the SEC ban on the short selling of financial stocks in September 2008, this paper investigates whether such selling activity before the 2008 short ban reflected financial companies’ risk exposure in the subprime crisis. Evidence suggests that short sellers sold short stocks that had the greatest asset and insolvency risk exposures, and that the short selling of financial firms’ stocks was not significantly greater than that of non-financial firms after we match them on firm size and insolvency risk. When the short ban was in effect, the market quality of financial stocks without subprime assets exposure had deteriorated to a larger degree than that of financial companies with subprime assets exposure. The findings imply that such a regulation may mute the market disciplining effects of investors and may also be seen as a counterweight to any perceived macro or systemic risk reduction benefits resulting from such a ban.     

我国证券交易前端控制制度的历史演进及发展趋势

前端控制是交易所在交易方面进行自律监管的重要手段。前端控制是中国证券市场的特有制度,是对传统监管模式的重大创新。根据中国市场结构的特点,前端控制实质上将监管关口前移,分担了盘中监控和事后处理的监管压力,弥补了资格准入的不足,完善了交易所自律的监管体系。对前端控制的经济学分析表明,前端控制具有透明度高与全面性强两大优势,符合监管机构稳定市场的需要。我国资本市场发展尚不成熟,且金融危机后全球金融改革的大趋势是加强监管,因此,在可预见的未来,监管机构将进一步加强前端控制,以此保持我国资本市场的稳定发展。     

Multimarket trading and liquidity: a transaction data analysis of Canada–US interlistings

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 US 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 US) to the US exchange after listing. We interpret this result in the context of theories of multimarket trading as a competitive response by TSE market makers to the additional presence of US market makers.     

Measuring the liquidity part of volume

Based on the concept that the presence of liquidity frictions can increase the daily traded volume, we develop an extended version of the mixture of distribution hypothesis model (MDH) along the lines of Tauchen and Pitts (1983) to measure the liquidity portion of volume. Our approach relies on a structural definition of liquidity frictions arising from the theoretical framework of Grossman and Miller (1988), which explains how liquidity shocks affect the way in which information is incorporated into daily trading characteristics. In addition, we propose an econometric setup exploiting the volatility–volume relationship to filter the liquidity portion of volume and infer the presence of liquidity frictions using daily data. Finally, based on FTSE 100 stocks, we show that the extended MDH model proposed here outperforms that of Andersen (1996) and that the liquidity frictions are priced in the cross-section of stock returns.     

规制证券短线交易法律制度的现存问题与对策

起源于美国的上市公司内部人短线交易(short-swing trading)收益归入权制度,是证券内幕交易法律规制制度的一个重要组成部分,其立法目的在于通过对上市公司内部人的短线交易收益予以归入这一威慑手段,建立内幕交易的事先防范和吓阻机制,以维持投资者对资本市场公正性和公平性的信赖,保障资本市场的健康、有序发展。本文试从投资者权益保护的视角,在对我国现行的相关法律制度、司法和监管实践进行研究分析的基础上,借鉴美国、日本、韩国、台湾地区等境外成熟市场的成功经验,提出了完善我国短线交易法律规制制度的若干建议与对策。     

流动性导流——中国货币需求及现阶段流动性过剩问题研究

近年来,流动性过剩成为了我国宏观经济的要害性问题.所谓"流动性导流",就是将目前过剩的流动性通过若干可能的渠道疏导到实体经济之外,使之基本不对实体经济产生负面影响.我国流动性过剩是由外向型经济结构引起的外汇过多流人造成的,在经济结构短期内难以根本改变且人民币升值预期难以根本逆转的情况下,只能从疏导过多流动性的角度来寻找防治通胀之道.具体的疏导渠道包括将一部分流动性导向境外和在境内扩大虚拟经济以吸收一部分流动性.后者是解决当前通胀压力和股市扩容压力的一箭双雕之策,也是本文的新观点所在.     

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.     

Intraday pairs trading strategies on high frequency data: the case of oil companies

This paper introduces novel ‘doubly mean-reverting’ processes based on conditional modelling of model spreads between pairs of stocks. Intraday trading strategies using high frequency data are proposed based on the model. This model framework and the strategies are designed to capture ‘local’ market inefficiencies that are elusive for traditional pairs trading strategies with daily data. Results from real data back-testing for two periods show remarkable returns, even accounting for transaction costs, with annualized Sharpe ratios of 3.9 and 7.2 over the periods June 2013–April 2015 and 2008, respectively. By choosing the particular sector of oil companies, we also confirm the observation that the commodity price is the main driver of the share prices of commodity-producing companies at times of spikes in the related commodity market.     

现阶段我国商业银行流动性过剩问题及对策研究

流动性管理是商业银行的生命线。上个世纪末国内商业银行出现了持续性的流动性过剩,引起了理论界、实务界的普遍关注。本文考察了商业银行流动性管理理论的发展,分析了我国商业银行流动性问题发展阶段、特点,提出了商业银行改善流动性管理的政策建议。     

次贷危机期间我国流动性管理操作评析——基于流动性测度

本文运用相对指标法设计真实货币缺口系数来测度我国在次贷危机期间的流动性状况,并对流动性供给状况进行了区间划分。在此基础上,本文归纳了人民银行流动性管理的操作实践,并对其实践效果进行评析,指出引进计量模型用于流动性测度的必要性,认为人民银行的流动性管理操作基本满足我国流动性管理需求,流动性管理工具的作用效果存在差异,其中法定存款准备金率对于调整货币供给量的作用不明显,再贴现政策的恰当使用强化了政策的综合效应。     

The price of liquidity: The effects of market conditions and bank characteristics

We study the prices that individual banks pay for liquidity (captured by borrowing rates in repos with the central bank and benchmarked by the overnight index swap) as a function of market conditions and bank characteristics. These prices depend in particular on the distribution of liquidity across banks, which is calculated over time using individual bank-level data on reserve requirements and actual holdings. Banks pay more for liquidity when positions are more imbalanced across banks, consistent with the existence of short squeezing. We also show that small banks pay more for liquidity and are more vulnerable to squeezes. Healthier banks pay less but, contrary to what one might expect, banks in formal liquidity networks do not. State guarantees reduce the price of liquidity but do not protect against squeezes.     

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.     

The impact of Saturday trading on stock returns: Evidence from the Tokyo stock exchange January 1976 to January 1989

This paper examines the impact of TSE Saturday trading on daily TOPIX returns and TSE trading volume over the January 1976 to January 1989 period. Saturday trading is shown to have no significant impact on mean stock returns for the other days of the week. However, a significant shift in the pattern of Monday and Tuesday TOPIX returns is documented in the post-August 1986 period. This shift does not appear to be related to Saturday trading. TSE Saturday trading is found to have a significant impact on the variance of stock returns on surrounding days. In addition, trading volume is significantly lower on trading days surrounding Saturday trading. These findings are relevant to the timing of portfolio adjustment decisions.