A SIMPLE MODEL OF BID-ASK SPREAD AND SEARCH

This paper analyzes a simple search model of market making in which the agents can choose between searching for a trading partner or trading through the market-maker. Explicit solutions for the equilibrium search intensities and the bid-ask spread have been provided. Equilibrium search intensities and the bid-ask spread reflect the strategic interaction between the agents and the market-maker: an increase in the bid-ask spread results in higher search intensities. The bid-ask spread, on the other hand, reacts negatively to an increase in the search intensities (due to lower search costs, higher efficiency of search, or higher gains from a match). It is also shown that the introduction of a market-maker increases the seller's reservation price and decreases the buyer's reservation price, hence narrowing the price dispersion.     

Life in the pits: competitive market making and inventory control

We use futures transaction data to investigate cross-sectionalrelationships between market-maker inventory positions and tradeactivity. The investigating documents strongly that traderscontrol inventory throughout the trading day. Despite this evidenceof inventory management, typical inventory control models predictthat market-maker reservation prices are negatively influencedby inventory. Surprisingly, our evidence shows, as a strongand consistent empirical regularity, that correlations betweeninventory and reservation prices are positive. We interpretthe evidence as consistent with active position takeing by futuresmarket floor traders.     

Information Effects on the Bid-Ask Spread

An individual who chooses to serve as a market-maker is assumed to optimize his position by setting a bid-ask spread which maximizes the difference between expected revenues received from liquidity-motivated traders and expected losses to information-motivated traders. By characterizing the cost of supplying quotes, as writing a put and a call option to an information-motivated trader, it is shown that the bid-ask spread is a positive function of the price level and return variance, a negative function of measures of market activity, depth, and continuity, and negatively correlated with the degree of competition. Thus, the theory of information effects on the bid-ask spread proposed in this paper is consistent with the empirical literature.     

Trade Transparency and the London Stock Exchange

On the London Stock Exchange the publication of large trades is delayed to give the market-maker concerned time to unwind the change in their inventory. Using trade and quotations data on 42 stocks for two years, a number of different effects are investigated. These include the association between trade size and the traded bid-ask spread, the inventory control policies of individual market-makers around large trades, the size and speed of the price impact of large trades whose publication is delayed, and the effects of delayed publication on the volume and spreads of the traded equity options market.     

The effects of relative price changes on the household's demand for money

In examining the economic response to changes in the rate of inflation, models of the demand for money have traditionally assumed that all prices change equiproportionately. This paper alternatively examines the effect on the demand for money of relative price changes. The analysis develops a choice theoretic framework of household behavior by combining a utility maximization framework with the inventory approach to the transactions demand for money. A significant result of the analysis is that the net effect of a change in relative prices on the household's money holding depends on the purchase frequencies and price elasticities of the relevant commodities.     

银行间债券市场价格发现功能研究

交易机制会对市场的价格发现功能造成影响。本文基于银行阃债券市场的高频数据,利用VAR模型和脉冲响应,对做市商市场的运行情况进行检验,发现:存货效应和信息不对称对价格发现均有显著影响,而后者的影响更大;交易行为显著正相关,但对价格水平无任何影响;交易价格对新信息的反应速度较快。不存在滞后调整。总体来看,《全国银行间债券市场做市商规定》的出台前后,市场质量无明显改善,这与现行的做市商制度有很大关系。     

Macroeconomic news and treasury futures return volatility: Do treasury auctions matter?

Various macroeconomic announcements are known to influence asset price volatility. In addition to non-farm payrolls, we highlight the importance of Treasury auctions – a news event that has grown in importance due to ongoing Federal deficits. The occurrence of an auction, which increases supply in the underlying cash market, pushes futures prices lower and volatility higher. Conversely, a higher bid-to-cover ratio, indicates greater demand for Treasury securities, increases Treasury futures prices and lowers volatility. The response is consistent with market participants using futures to manage inventory risk. The results are consistent across a set of volatility estimates, and in an alternate conditional volatility framework.     

A learning market-maker in the Glosten–Milgrom model

This paper develops a model of a learning market-maker by extending the Glosten–Milgrom model of dealer markets. The market-maker tracks the changing true value of a stock in settings with informed traders (with noisy signals) and liquidity traders, and sets bid and ask prices based on its estimate of the true value. We empirically evaluate the performance of the market-maker in markets with different parameter values to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm, and then use the algorithm to derive properties of price processes in simulated markets. When the true value is governed by a jump process, there is a two regime behaviour marked by significant heterogeneity of information and large spreads immediately following a price jump, which is quickly resolved by the market-maker, leading to a rapid return to homogeneity of information and small spreads. We also discuss the similarities and differences between our model and real stock market data in terms of distributional and time series properties of returns.     

DUAL CLASS SHARES: ARE THERE RETURNS DIFFERENCES?

We examine dual classes of shares with identical dividends and liquidation treatment, but with different voting rights. We extend previous dud class studies by examining bid-ask adjusted prices and by examining returns after controlling for bid-ask spread and market value differences between voting classes. We establish that voting right differences, although related to price differences between superior and restricted voting shares, do not impact on average returns behavior. These findings are consistent with previously forwarded voting premium hypotheses.     

Optimal dealer pricing under transactions and return uncertainty

The paper examines the optimal behavior of a single dealer who is faced with a stochastic demand to trade (modeled by a continuous time Poisson jump process) and facing return risk on his stock and on the rest of his portfolio (modeled by diffusion processes). Using stochastic dynamic programming, we derive the optimal bid and ask prices that maximize the dealer's expected utility of terminal wealth as a function of the state in which he finds himself. The relationship of the bid and ask prices to inventory of the dealer, instantaneous variance of return, stochastic arrival of transactions and other variables is examined.     

金融期货最小价格变化单位的市场影响与最优水平

最小价格变化单位是买卖价差的底线，设置过高会人为地提高买卖价差的水平，增加交易费用；过低又会降低市场深度，增加交易谈判成本，影响交易效率。对最优价格升降档位的设定，要综合考虑精度要求、合约乘数、交易谈判成本和实际买卖价差水平等因素；而以实际买卖价差的底线作为最小价格升降档位，能较好地避免人为抬高买卖价差的情况出现。     

中国一线城市房租形成机理和调控对策

房租是由房屋租赁市场的需求和供给两个方面决定的,而房屋租赁市场的需求和供给都受到房屋交易市场所形成的房价的影响。房价对房屋租赁市场需求的影响主要是由于房屋租赁市场和房屋交易市场的替代效应所导致,房价对房屋租赁市场供给的影响主要由房屋租售比和房价的上涨幅度决定。我国一线城市房价近十年的平均年上涨率为10%左右,这导致了我国一线城市的房屋租售比维持在极低的水平。随着房价的平稳,房租必然大幅上涨,故必须采取措施增加一线城市房屋租赁市场的供给,以供给量的大幅增加稳定房租。     

‘Open-ending’ closed-end funds

Open-ending a closed-end fund forces the price of the fund's shares to their net asset value. Open-ending behavior is shown to correspond in predictable ways to the incentive to open-end and to potential resistance to open-ending. Moreover, closed-end fund share prices begin to generate statistically significant positive abnormal returns well in advance of the formal announcement of the open-ending. Although a small part of the total abnormal return is not entirely exhausted until after the announcement, such market price performance is broadly consistent with a semi-strong form efficient market.     

What is going on in the oil market?

Conclusion In this article, we propose a consistent view on the recent oil-price history based on fundamental data and economic theory. We sum up: After the turn of the century three major stylized shocks have hit market. First, the demand curve has shifted fight outwards, mainly driven, as extensively reported in the media, by sustained growth in China and other Asian Countries. Second, supply disruptions in countries with low extraction costs (Iraq and Venezuela) have shifted the supply curve to the left. Third, we show that speculators adjust their inventories in order to take advantage of predictable price fluctuations and play themselves a major role in the price formation. Optimal storage theory implies that aggregate inventories are negatively related to the oil price and positively to the volatility of supply and demand shocks. We provide evidence that the political events in the last years have increased volatility and induced the inventory curve to shift right outwards. We analyze in a graphical framework the interaction of all these shocks and conclude that speculators have caused the oil price to overshoot in the short run its long-run fundamental value. However, this is not at all attributable to market failure or the harmfulness of speculators. In fact, the opposite is true. Speculators have in general a dampening effect on the oil price. The record oil price in the very recent history is partly a consequence of speculators maintaining or building-up inventories to cope with the supply and demand shocks to come. Hence, high prices represent a short-term toll for future price stability. It follows from our analysis that the oil price is expected to fall towards its long-term mean, provided that no further shocks hit the economy and, critically, the oil supply. As we saw, this prediction is consistent with the observed prices in the futures markets. Also in terms of future price volatility, the outlook is rather upbeat. The increased inventory levels held by speculators will cushion the spot market against fluctuations in natural supply and demand and limit the degree to which the currently high underlying volatility will translate into higher price volatility. We would like to thank Manuel Ammann, Bernd Brommundt, Stephan Kessler, Ralf Seiz, Michael Verhofen, Hemrich von Wyss, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments We are particularly indebted to Sergej Peisotchenko at United Energy System (UES) of Russia and Jan Gjerde at Shell for clearing us up on technical aspects of oil production     

Microstructure and reverse stock splits

In this paper we show that, similar to NYSE/AMEX stocks, NASDAQ stocks exhibit significant ex date returns for reverse stock splits. Although the 10-day cumulative return after the ex date is close to –10%, this does not violate market efficiency, because the average bid-ask spread for the reverse split stock is at least double this return. We also document that these large negative returns are mostly due to a drop in the ask price while bid prices barely change at all. Furthermore, the ex date returns are negatively related to trading volume.These results suggest that there is abnormal selling and a significant buildup of market makers' inventories near the ex date. To reduce the inventory buildup, market makers lower ask prices to induce buying by investors, resulting in the observed negative returns. Lowering bid prices, an alternative strategy for reducing inventories, is not attractive to market makers due to competitive factors and the reduction of commissions associated with a smaller number of transactions. Notably, selling investors have no incentives to sell their stocks early to avoid the observed negative ex date return, since this return is largely an ask price phenomenon and does not represent realized returns to sellers.     

Estimating the price elasticity of demand in the London stock market

The hypothesis that demand curves for individual stocks slope downwards is typically investigated by empirical analysis of stock price movements following events that cause shifts in demand or supply. However, it is difficult to attribute observed price movements between downward sloping demand curves and information conveyed by the event. In this paper an econometric approach, based on market-maker response to unexpected changes in inventory, is used to separate out the slope of the demand curve from information effects and estimate the slopes of the demand curves for twenty stocks included in the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100 Share Index (FTSE100). The analysis suggests that downward sloping demand curves would decrease the price by about 7.5% for a 1% increase in the number of outstanding shares.     

Market transparency: who wins and who loses?

This study uses laboratory experiments to determine the effectsof trade and quote disclosure on market efficiency, bid-askspreads, and trader welfare. We show that trade disclosure increasesthe informational efficiency of transaction prices, but alsoincreases opening bid-ask spreads, apparently by reducing market-makers'incentives to compete for order flow. As a result, trade disclosurebenefits market makers at the expense of liquidity traders andinformed traders. We find that quote disclosure has no discernibleeffects on market performance. Overall our results demonstratethat the degree of market transparency has important effectsof market equilibria and on trader and market-maker welfare.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE SPECIALISTS' PRICE-SETTING BEHAVIOR: AN EXPERIMENT

This study uses an experimental approach to analyze variables hypothesized to influence specialists' behavior in establishing opening prices on the New York Stock Exchange. Participants in this study are actual NYSE specialists. A factorial design is employed, and data are analyzed using the analysis of variance model. Current demand and supply data are shown to have the most significant impact on specialists' decisions, with limit order book information and inventory position also proving to be significant and consistent for specialists participating in the study.     

Price experimentation and security market structure

We examine the role of market makers in facilitating price discovery.We show that a specialist may experiment with prices to inducemore informative order flow. thereby expediting price discovery.Market makers in a multiple-dealer system, unlike a specialistsystem, do not have the incentives to perform such costly experimentsbecause of free-rider problems. Consequently, the specialistsystem may provide open markets where competition fails butat the cost of wider bid-ask spreads. We analyze the effectof experimentation on the bid-ask spread and provide an exploratoryanalysis of intraday specialist data that is consistent withour price experimentation hypothesis.     

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.