Detecting Information from Directors' Trades: Signal Definition and Variable Size Effects

There have been three empirical studies examining the share price reaction following trades by directors of UK companies (King and Poell, 1988; Pope, Morris and Peel, 1990; and Gregory, Matatko, Tonks and Pukiss, 1994). All three of these UK studies used different definitions of 'buy' and 'sell' signals resulting from the transactions of directors and employ different controls to detect the presence of any 'size effects'. We investigate whether the signal definition explains the different conclusions drawn by these earlier studies, and examine whether or not any observed abnormal returns are explicable by the small companies effect. We also investigate trading strategies based on holding a long portfolio of shares purchased or a short portfolio of shares sold by directors held until the end of the study period or until a 'reserving event' (e.g. a sale following a purchase by director[s] is observed).     

证券交易的透明度与信息揭示制度：理论综述

证券交易过程中，交易信息的发布、扩散和传递方式对于各类市场参与者非常重要。目前关于信息揭示制度和交易透明度对市场运行效果的影响尚存在许多争议。本文讨论了交易透明度的含义、研究者和市场机构对于交易透明度的争论、交易透明度与市场绩效的关系，以及不同交易透明性的市场之间的竞争等问题，系统总结了目前与证券交易透明度和交易信息揭示有关的理论观点，以期把握交易信息揭示程度对市场产生的影响，以及由此引起的交易透明度对市场的运行效率产生的影响。     

Directors' Recommendations in Takeovers: An Agency and Governance Analysis

Abstract:   This paper evaluates whether directors of target companies make response recommendations in takeovers which are consistent with the interests of shareholders, by examining the relationship between target director recommendations and associated takeover characteristics and ownership and corporate governance characteristics of target companies. The findings suggest that response recommendations appear to be more closely associated with the self‐interest of directors rather than shareholders' concerns, and that common governance initiatives aimed at aligning the interests of shareholders and managers are ineffective in resolving this agency problem. The results suggest the need for legislative or judicial reforms in Australia to encourage takeover activity and reduce takeover hostility.     

Empirical Evidence on the Role of Trading Suspensions in Disseminating New Information to the Capital Market

Abstract:  This paper examines the effect of temporarily suspending the trading of exchange-listed individual stocks. We evaluate whether regulatory authorities can successfully use the mechanism of trading suspension in forcing companies to disclose new and material information to the capital market. Previous studies on trading suspensions mainly concentrate on North-American stock markets and find conflicting results. This study utilizes a new data set comprising of firms listed on Euronext Brussels – an important segment of Europe's leading cross-border exchange. Our results show that suspension is indeed an effective means of disseminating new information. Stock prices adjust completely and instantaneously to the new information released during trading suspensions. We also observe a significant increase in trading volume with the reinstatement of trading. On the other hand, we do not find support for the claim that trading suspensions increase the volatility of stock prices. Overall, our results show the efficacy of trading suspensions in disseminating new information.     

The short-term impact of director trading in UK closed-end funds

Most closed-end funds are transparent entities that hold securities that are actively traded in liquid markets. In such a setting, the argument that director transactions mitigate information asymmetry has very limited applicability. Our results provide support for the theory of Barber and Odean [2008. “All that Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors.” Review of Financial Studies 21: 785–818]: retail investor decision-making is influenced by attention-grabbing events. Director purchases are one such attention-grabbing event and are associated with significant positive price returns – the magnitudes of which are linked to the size of the purchase, the size of the fund, and the investment mandate. Trading volumes increase at the time of the purchase but most of the initial price responses and trading volumes dissipate over the following 15 days.     

Sooner or Later: An Analysis of the Delays in Insider Trading Reporting

Abstract:  Until October 2004, corporate insiders in Germany were required to report trades in the shares of their firm 'without delay'. Yet in practice, substantial reporting delays were common. We show that the delays are related systematically to the characteristics of the firm. Delays are longer in firms with dispersed ownership and in firms using German accounting standards. This suggests that managers of these firms are less responsive to the informational requirements of the capital market. We further find that abnormal returns after the reporting date of an insider trade are independent of the reporting delay. This implies that prices are distorted in the period between the insider trading and the reporting date. This is a strong point in favour of regulations that require and enforce the immediate disclosure of insider trades.     

The Dynamics of Security Trades,Quote Revisions,and Market Depths for Actively Traded Stocks

We examine the dynamics of return volatility, trading volume, and depth—in an intraday setting for a sample of actively traded NYSE and NASDAQ stocks. We show that depth is a useful intervening variable and mitigates the impact of trading activity on price volatility. Furthermore, depth is affected by the perception of prevailing information asymmetry between informed and uninformed traders. We demonstrate empirically that the NYSE supplies greater depth under conditions of high, perceived information asymmetry as compared to NASDAQ. NASDAQ makes up for this deficiency by its capability of managing large volume shocks without a major decline in depth.JEL Classification: C32, D82, G10     

交易透明度对证券场外交易信息效率的影响

黑池交易系统(Dark Pools)是美国近年发展较快的非公开交易平台,其信息透明度较低,可提供匿名交易的服务,并由此实现信息的非公开传递。通过扩展后验信念收敛速率的模型来描述不同交易透明度下场外市场的信息显示速率,发现私人信息与公共信息共存有利于信息更快地显示,因而私人信息渠道与公共信息渠道共存有利于提升信息效率,由此解释了非公开交易平台的价值,也为我国场外市场的分层发展提供可行建议.     

Earnings Announcements, Asymmetric Information, Trades and Quotes

This paper empirically analyses trades and quotes around the times of 37 earnings announcements in the Paris Bourse. We find that trading volume is larger on announcement days, spreads are wider after announcements, and the permanent positive (resp. negative) price impact of purchases (sales) is greater around announcements. While the findings pertaining to the spread and the permanent impact of trades are consistent with the view that earnings announcements correspond to an increase in information asymmetries, the result that trading volume is larger suggests that other effects are at work.     

The Effectiveness of Regulation Fair Disclosure: Evidence from an Emerging Market

The effect of corporate disclosure in emerging markets is not clearly predictable because of the prevalent information leakage prior to disclosure. We empirically examine the effectiveness of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) in reducing information asymmetry among equity traders in an emerging market. Specifically, we test whether fair disclosure activity is negatively related to the probability of informed trading (PIN). Multivariate tests on a sample of listed companies in Korea subject to Reg FD reveal the following: (1) more frequent disclosure under Reg FD is related to lower information asymmetry, and (2) this relation differs across the types of disclosure, with the effect of qualitative disclosures on the PIN being weaker than that of quantitative disclosures. Evidence also indicates that the negative association between fair disclosure activities and information asymmetry is more (less) pronounced for firms with poorer (better) information environments where selective information leakage is more (less) likely. The results are robust to sensitivity tests. Our findings have implications for disclosure regulations in emerging markets, given that the existing literature casts doubt on the effectiveness of corporate disclosure in such markets.     

The Price Impacts of Open Market Repurchase Trades

Abstract:  This paper analyzes a database of 60,000+ individual repurchase trades from the Toronto Stock Exchange. The average intraday price impact of repurchase trades is negative, since, because of execution rules, 60% are seller-initiated. Prices fall less following repurchase than matched non-repurchase trades—there is an abnormal price impact. We find evidence consistent with two hypotheses: repurchases provide price support, and the market learns that the shares are undervalued. Consistent with the latter, we find that repurchasing companies have superior timing. Share prices show abnormal losses (gains) before (after) the repurchase trades. We find no significant market reaction to the mandatory public disclosure of the trade details.     

Insider Trades and Private Information: The Special Case of Delayed-Disclosure Trades

In certain circumstances, insider trades such as private transactionsbetween executives and their firms could be disclosed afterthe end of the firm's fiscal year, on a Form-5 filing. We findthat insider sales disclosed in such a delayed manner for largefirms are predictive of negative future returns (–6 to–8 percent), as well as lower future annual earnings relativeto analyst forecasts. These results stand in contrast to existingfindings on the uninformativeness of quickly disclosed open-marketinsider sales. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act curtailed the use of Form5 under the presumption that managers used this vehicle opportunistically.Our systematic evidence supports this presumption.     

Measuring abnormal daily trading volume for samples of NYSE/ASE and NASDAQ securities using parametric and nonparametric test statistics

We extend prior research on the empirical properties of daily trading volume and methods to detect abnormal trading volume in two ways. We compare the performance of a nonparametric test statistic with the parametric test statistic used in prior research and we study samples of NASDAQ securities as well as samples of NYSE/ASE securities. Prior research has focused exclusively on NYSE securities. We find the nonparametric test statistic is more powerful in detecting abnormal trading volume than the parametric test statistic in both samples of NYSE/ASE and NASDAQ securities. We also document that abnormal trading volume will be detected more often in samples of NYSE/ASE securities compared to NASDAQ securities.     

Who Trades Around Earnings Announcements? Evidence from TORQ Data

Abstract:  Using TORQ database we investigate the intra-day trading volume reactions to earnings announcements of five trader groups, individuals, institutions, exchange members, program traders, and specialists. The results of this study indicate that institutions are most active in the immediate aftermath of an announcement. Individual investors are slow at the beginning but accumulate heavy volume afterwards and exceed institutional trading volume. We find support for Harris and Raviv (1993) and Admati and Pfleiderer (1988) , who respectively argue that divergence of opinion about a public information and portfolio rebalancing cause surges in pre- and post-announcement trading volume. Further we find evidence of swift and aggressive trading by informed and sophisticated institutions in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, and delayed, aggressive trading volume 'overreaction' by 'slow' and 'overconfident' individual investors as documented by Barber and Odean (2000 and 2002) and Daniel et al. (1998) . NYSE specialists provide the bulk of the liquidity needs around earnings announcements.     

Asymmetry in Stock Returns Following Block Trades on the Australian Stock Exchange: A Note

A number of recent US. studies have examined the price impact of large (block) trades using intraday data. A major finding is that the price movement following block trades continues upwards following purchases but reverses following sales. This asymmetry in price behaviour, which suggests that block sellers pay a liquidity premium while block buyers do not, has been described as 'intriguing' and a 'key puzzle'. The purpose of this note is to determine whether the phenomenon exists on the Australian Stock Exchange. Evidence consistent with the 'puzzling' asymmetry is shown to exist when returns are measured from the block trade until the close of trade. Contrary to US. findings, which have shown that prices appear to reverse following both block purchases and sales in transaction time analysis, the asymmetry in price behaviour is also demonstrated to exist in transaction returns for the ASX. All results are found to be robust to a number of research design innovations and data partitions.     

Reporting Frequency, Information Precision and Private Information Acquisition

Abstract:  This study examines whether the choice between quarterly and semiannual reporting affects the precision of investors' information and their private information acquisition activities. In the first part of this study, we show that a firm's reporting frequency has no effect on the average precision of investors' information. However, our analysis of announcement-period price variance and share turnover shows that an increase in reporting frequency does make interim and annual financial reports a more important component of investors' information set, relative to other sources of information. In particular, the results of this analysis suggest that investors of semiannual reporters hold more precise pre-announcement information than investors of quarterly reporters. In the second part of our study, we test one explanation for this finding. We argue that an increase in a firm's reporting frequency reduces investors' incentives to acquire private information between consecutive announcement dates and, consequently, should reduce information asymmetry among investors, increase share liquidity, and stimulate trading. Consistent with this reasoning, we find that quarterly reporters have lower average bid-ask spreads and higher abnormal share turnover than semiannual reporters.     

Empirical Identification of Non-Informational Trades Using Trading Volume Data

This paper empirically identifies non-informational and informational trades using stock returns and trading volume data of the U.S., Japanese, and U.K. stock markets and five individual firms. We achieve the identification by imposing a restriction from theoretical considerations. Our results show that trading volume is mainly driven by non-informational trades, while stock price movements are primarily driven by informational trades. We also find that, around the 1987 stock market crash, trading volumes due to non-informational trades increased dramatically, while the decline in stock market prices was due mainly to informational trades. Increases in volatilities both in returns and in trading volumes during and after the crash are mainly due to non-informational trades. Regarding the trading volume-serial correlation in the stock returns relationship, we find evidence that is consistent with theoretical predictions that non-informational components can account for high trading volume accompanied by a low serial correlation of stock returns.     

Inferring Public and Private Information from Trades and Quotes

We propose a new model that uses nonsynchronous, ultra‐high frequency data to analyze the sequential impact of trades and quotes on the price process. Private information is related to the impact of trades and public information to the impact of quotes. The model is extended to include various other factors that affect public and private information. For 20 active Nasdaq stocks, private information causes, on average, 9.43% of daily stock price movements. Additionally, quotes are more informative when (1) many dealers set the best price and (2) traditional market makers rather than Electronic Communication Networks set the best price.     

Short-run Returns around the Trades of Corporate Insiders on the London Stock Exchange

Previous work examined the long-run profitability of strategies mimicking the trades company directors in the shares of their own company, as a way of testing for market efficiency. The current paper examines patterns in abnormal returns in the days around these trades on the London Stock Exchange.
We find movements in returns that are consistent with directors engaging in short-term market timing. We also report that some types of trades have superior predictive content over future returns. In particular, medium-sized trades are more informative for short-term returns than large ones, consistent with Barclay and Warner's (1993) 'stealth trading' hypothesis whereby informed traders avoid trading in blocks.
Another contribution of this study is to properly adjust the abnormal return estimates for microstructure (spread) transactions costs using daily bid-ask spread data. On a net basis, we find that abnormal returns all but disappear.