The role of floor brokers in the supply of liquidity: An empirical analysis

This article analyses the role of floor brokers in the supply of liquidity on the Australian Stock Exchange Derivatives market. Floor brokers have valuable order execution skills because of their information advantage over off‐floor traders and their ability to mitigate some problems related to the option‐like characteristics of limit orders. Our results indicate that floor broker participation in the execution of limit orders tends to be high when the above qualities are most valuable. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 20:205–218, 2000     

Do brokers act in the best interests of their clients? New evidence from electronic trading systems

Prior research suggests brokers do not always act in the best interests of clients, although morally obligated to do so. We empirically investigated this issue focusing on trades executed at best execution price, before and after the introduction of electronic limit‐order trading, on the London Stock Exchange. As a result of limit‐order trading, the proportion of trades executed at the best execution price for the customer significantly increased. We attribute this to a sustained increase in the liquidity of stocks as a result of limit‐order trading, regardless of market capitalisation. We discuss the ethical implications of our findings and conclude that market structures that enhance market competitiveness may help reconcile broker and client interests.     

Financial disclosure by SMEs listed on a semi-regulated market: evidence from the Euronext Free Market

This study investigates the financial disclosure policy of small and medium-sized enterprises listed on a stock market with very low disclosure requirements: the Free Market of the Euronext Stock Exchange. In contrast to firms listed on a regulated stock market, firms on the Free Market do not have any obligation to disclose periodic or price-sensitive information. We investigate the determinants of voluntary financial disclosure and its influence on stock liquidity. Our results suggest that firms disclose more financial information when they are likely to benefit from disclosure. Firms especially disclose when they issue equity. Voluntary disclosure also has a significant positive effect on stock liquidity, consistent with disclosure reducing information asymmetry.     

Competition to provide liquidity on the New York Stock Exchange

In order to be successful in attracting trading volume and generate revenue from trading fees, exchanges must allow potential traders to transact quickly at a known price. This is known as providing liquidity. On the New York Stock Exchange, liquidity comes from two sources: traders conducting business on the floor of the exchange and those who electronically send orders to the exchange from off-floor locations. On-floor traders have traditionally been alleged to have advantages over off-floor traders. If that is the case, then this might discourage off-floor traders from providing liquidity and reduce the efficiency of security markets. We find that on-floor traders do seem to enjoy some advantages in providing liquidity, although the differences are not great. This suggests that the New York Stock Exchange is warranted in several of its recent initiatives designed to level the playing field between on- and off-floor traders.     

Execution quality in open‐outcry futures markets

This study examines the composition of customer order .flow and the execution quality for different types of customer orders in six futures pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). It is shown that off‐exchange customers frequently provide liquidity to other traders by submitting limit orders. The determinants of customers' choice between limit and market orders are examined, and it is found that higher bid—ask spreads increase the limit‐order submission frequency, and increased price volatility makes limit‐order submission less likely. Effective spreads, trading revenues, and turnaround times for customer liquidity‐demanding and limit orders are also documented. Consistent with evidence from equity markets, the results show that limit‐order traders receive better executions than traders using liquidity‐demanding orders, but incur adverse selection costs. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 25:1067–1092, 2005     

股票市场周日历效应传导关系研究

以上证综指、深证成指、恒生指数、日经225指数四种指数为研究对象,实证研究四个股市的周日历效应及其传导关系。研究发现,上证综指在一周中有三天存在周日历效应,周二负效应和周三、周五正效应;深证成指在周三和周五两天存在正效应;恒生指数和日经225指数则分别在周五和周一存在正效应和负效应。上证综指的周三、周五正效应与深证成指的周三、周五正效应互相传导;上证综指与恒生指数的周五正效应互相传导;深证成指与恒生指数的周五正效应亦互相传导;日经225指数与其他三种指数的周日历效应却不存在传导关系。     

The Relation Between Market Liquidity and Anonymity in the Presence of Tick Size Constraints

In February 2004, the Sydney Futures Exchange removed broker identifiers from the electronic limit order book for interest rate futures contracts, with the stated objective of maintaining transparency and improving market participation and liquidity. We show how the Exchange's aims were generally met by documenting an increase in volume and frequency of trades and a decline in time‐weighted quoted spreads. Although daily effective spreads do not decline, intraday analysis demonstrates that there are improvements in effective spreads which are concentrated to those points in time where the bid–ask spread is not constrained by the size of the minimum tick, and where information asymmetries are present. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 34:56–73, 2014     

Large trades and intraday futures price behavior

This study examines the effects of large trades executed by outside customer on the prices of futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. We find that, on average, large buyer-initiated trades have a larger permanent price impact (information effect) than large seller-initiated trades, whereas the opposite is found for the temporary price impact (liquidity effects) of large trades. These results are consistent with previous findings for block and institutional trades in equity markets. However, we also find that the information effects of large sells are larger than large buys in bearish markets, whereas the results are the reverse in bullish markets. The liquidity price effects of buys are larger than the liquidity price effects of sells in bearish markets whereas the reverse results hold in bullish markets. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the current economic condition is a key determinant of asymmetric price effects between large buys and large sells. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:1147–1181, 2008     

Liquidity Constraints and Investment Opportunities: New Evidence from Large and Small Businesses in the UK

In this paper, we compare the liquidity constraints and investment opportunities for large and small businesses. This is done by examining the relationship between stock liquidity and investment opportunities in a sample of large and small enterprises listed on the London Stock Exchange. We find a positive statistical association between stock liquidity and investment opportunities, regardless of the size of the enterprise. This unique result in the London Stock Exchange suggests that firm size does not influence corporate investment decisions because there is no significant change in the cost of capital between large and small enterprises.     

Cash trading and index futures price volatility

This study examines the effect of cash market liquidity on the volatility of stock index futures. Two facets of cash market liquidity are considered: (1) the level of liquidity trading proxied by the expected New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading volume and (2) the noise composition of trading proxied by the average NYSE trading commission cost. Under the framework of spline–GARCH with a liquidity component, both the quarterly average commission cost and the quarterly expected NYSE volume are negatively associated with the ex ante daily volatility of S&P 500 and NYSE composite index futures. Conversely, liquidity and noise trading in the cash market both dampen futures price volatility, ceteris paribus. This negative association between secular cash trading liquidity and daily futures price volatility is amplified during times of market crisis. These results retain statistical significance and materiality after controlling for bid–ask bounce of futures prices and volume of traded futures contracts. This study establishes empirical evidence to affirm the conventional prediction of a liquidity–volatility relationship: the liquidity effect is secular and persistent across markets. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 31:465–486, 2011     

对我国国债市场流动性的实证研究

本文从流动性的宽度和深度两个角度,对上海交易所和银行间债券市场的流动性进行量化分析,分析中使用一阶序列自协方差模拟估计有效价差(宽度),用换手率和Amivest流动性比率估计深度及宽度.经研究发现:两个市场的流动性具有结构性特征,不能简单比较,得出孰高孰低的结论;在回购交易品种中,银行间市场的7天回购流动性最佳,其价格可以作为基准利率;债券市场存在新券和旧券之间的流动性替代效应.     

Market Fairness: The Poor Country Cousin of Market Efficiency

Both fairness and efficiency are important considerations in market design and regulation, yet many regulators have neither defined nor measured these concepts. We develop an evidencebased policy framework in which these are both defined and measured using a series of empirical proxies. We then build a systems estimation model to examine the 2003–2011 explosive growth in algorithmic trading (AT) on the London Stock Exchange and NYSE Euronext Paris. Our results show that greater AT is associated with increased transactional efficiency and reduced information leakage in top quintile stocks. For less liquid stocks, manipulation at the close declines. We also document the tradeoff between reduced spreads and increased manipulation or information leakage following the introduction of MiFID1.     

Market openness and market quality in gold markets

This paper studies the impact of market openness on market quality in gold markets, by investigating the openness event that occurred when the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) launched an international board (SGEI) for foreign investors in China. Investors prefer to trade on the SGE than the SGEI, probably due to the SGE’s higher liquidity. In addition, using the New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) gold futures as the benchmark, we show the SGE experiences a significant increase in liquidity without a concomitant increase in volatility. Moreover, the SGE’s contribution to international gold price discovery increases after the openness event.     

中国股市扩大买卖盘揭示范围的效应分析——对市场波动性影响的实证研究

2003年 12月沪深股市扩大买卖盘揭示范围,大幅提高了市场的交易前透明度。本文分别用统计假设检验和计量经济学模型,实证分析了该政策实行前后的市场波动性是否有明显变化。结果表明,买卖盘揭示范围的这次调整,对中国股市的波动性没有明显影响;来自中国证券市场交易前透明性改革的实证结果,并不支持透明性在一定程度上影响市场质量的理论观点。     

Local trader profitability in futures markets: Liquidity and position taking profits

This study examines the profitability of local traders on floor‐traded futures markets. Using unique data from the period of floor trading on the Sydney Futures Exchange, local income is decomposed into liquidity and position‐taking profit components. Locals on the trading floor are found to make significant position‐taking profits. Moreover, the ability of locals on the floor to derive position‐taking profits is positively related to order‐flow related information, and negatively related to the presence of exogenous information, local liquidity profits and the length of a locals inventory cycle. Accordingly, this paper characterizes locals as active informed traders. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 30:1–24, 2010     

Call Auction Transparency and Market Liquidity: Evidence from China

This paper uses the natural experiment offered by the Shanghai Stock Exchange to investigate the impact of opening call auction transparency on market liquidity. We find that the dissemination of indicative trade information during the pre‐open call auction session leads to an overall improvement in stock liquidity in the continuous trading session. Bid‐ask spreads narrow in the first trading hour because adverse selection risk fell significantly and there is less price volatility in the continuous market. This effect is greater for actively traded securities than illiquid securities. Our findings are robust for different lengths of sample period, different lengths of trading hours after market open, and stocks that had (and had not) reformed the share split structure during our research period.     

Information Asymmetry and Quarterly Disclosure Decisions by Firms: Evidence From the Tokyo Stock Exchange

This study investigates whether the new quarterly disclosure reporting requirement issued by the Tokyo Stock Exchange was related to the reduction of the degree of private information‐based trade and the liquidity of listed stocks in Japan, or as a reverse causality, helped dichotomize good firms and bad firms as a separating signaling equilibrium. We use the probability of asymmetric information‐based trade (Adjusted PIN) as a measure of information asymmetry and the probability of symmetric order‐flow shock (PSOS) as a measure of market illiquidity. We use a sample of public firms from 2002 to 2007 that chose to either disclose or not disclose quarterly financial reports. We find that the disclosing firms had lower information asymmetry (Adjusted PIN), lower symmetric order‐flow shocks (PSOS), and lower private information‐based trade (PIN). When we conduct further difference‐in‐differences tests, we find that the firms with lower information asymmetry and higher liquidity had a higher tendency to disclose their financial statements and vice versa. Thus, the new disclosure requirement did not necessarily improve the information asymmetry and liquidity of firms, but instead helped good and bad firms form a case for a separating signaling equilibrium.     

Foreign listings, corporate governance, and equity valuations

This paper analyzes the impact of foreign listing on equity valuations and relates it to an improvement in corporate governance. It documents abnormal returns around the announcement to list foreign shares on the London Stock Exchange. These are partially explained by a reduction of agency costs that is consistent with the enhanced monitoring and investor protection that prevail in a superior information and legal environment. The results are consistent with predictions derived from theoretical models of agency costs and illustrate an interesting implication of more open global equity markets.     

The Profitability of Option‐Based Contrarian Strategies: An Empirical Analysis

Short‐selling restrictions limit investors' opportunities to profit from contrarian strategies in equity markets. We examine the proposition that incorporating options into contrarian strategies constitute a viable alternative to investors when short‐selling restrictions are in place. In particular, we combine equities with the call and put options traded on the Australian Stock Exchange to investigate the profitability of contrarian strategies in the hybrid market and options market alone. We assess the practical issues in the execution of these approaches, including testing for the effects of limited liquidity and transaction costs. We also investigate how fundamental factors (such as dividend yield, firm size, book‐to‐market ratio, earnings per share, price‐earnings ratio, value stocks, and market conditions) affect contrarian portfolios. The results show that employing options can enhance the profitability of contrarian strategies under certain market conditions.