MARKET STRUCTURE AND REPORTED TRADING VOLUME: NASDAQ VERSUS THE NYSE

Trading volume for common stocks is of interest to financial economists, investors, and securities lawyers. NASDAQ is a dealer market where trades with dealers are included in reported trading volume. This procedure does not accurately measure the trading volume by public buyers and sellers. Trading volume reported on the NYSE, which is primarily an auction market, provides a much closer measure of trades by public investors. We examine a sample of firms whose stock traded on the NASDAQ/NMS and subsequently on the NYSE. When trading switches to the NYSE, the firms' trading volume drops to about 50 percent of the volume previously reported on NASDAQ. A control group of firms that switched from the AMEX to the NYSE shows a small, but statistically insignificant, increase in trading volume.     

THE EFFECTS OF THE ANNOUNCEMENTS OF DIVIDEND INCREASES ON STOCK RETURN VOLATILITY: THE EVIDENCE FROM THE OPTIONS MARKET

This paper examines the impact of the announcements of dividend increases on the volatility of underlying stock returns implied by option prices, and analyses whether the impact is related to the label associated with the dividend increase. The results suggest that the announcements of labelled dividend increases are accompanied by a decrease in implied volatility, while the announcements of unlabelled increases in dividends are associated with no change in implied volatility. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that signal implicit in the announcements of dividend increases provides noisy information about the firm's volatility.     

TRADING COSTS AND QUOTE CLUSTERING ON THE NYSE AND NASDAQ AFTER DECIMALIZATION

We examine execution costs and quote clustering on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ using 517 matching pairs of stocks after decimalization. We find that the mean spread of NASDAQ stocks is greater than the mean spread of NYSE stocks when spreads are equally weighted across stocks, and the difference is greater for smaller stocks. In contrast, the mean NASDAQ spread is narrower than the mean NYSE spread when spreads are volume weighted, and the difference is statistically significant for large stocks. Both NYSE and NASDAQ stocks exhibit high degrees of quote clustering on nickels and dimes, and quote clustering has a significant effect on spreads in both markets.     

THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES AS A COINTEGRATED SYSTEM: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE EUROCURRENCY MARKET

In this paper I examine the term structure of Eurocurrency interest rates from six countries (with maturities of one, two, three, and six months) using unit root tests and cointegration tests that are robust to departures from independent and identically distributed errors. The main conclusions are: (1) Eurocurrency interest rates have one (and only one) unit root when viewed individually, and (2) for each of the countries examined, Eurocurrency interest rates are cointegrated—with one equilibrium relationship—when viewed jointly. These conclusions are consistent with the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis and suggest that in efficient markets arbitrage generally prevents rates on different maturities of a given asset from drifting too far for an extended period.     

TRANSACTION COSTS AND DAY-OF-THE-WEEK EFFECTS IN THE OTC/NASDAQ EQUITY MARKET

A potential explanation is examined here for the observed day-of-the-week effect in equity returns—systematic daily patterns in percentage bid-ask spreads. Using OTC/NASDAQ data over 1973–1985, strong return day-of-the-week effects are documented while mean dealer percentage spreads are essentially unchanged over the week. These results provide evidence that systematic percentage spread changes do not contribute to the observed return anomaly.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EARNINGS YIELD AND MARKET VALUE: EVIDENCE FROM THE AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE

This paper provides new evidence on the empirical anomalies known as the earnings/price (E/P) effect and the size effect in the pricing of common stock. Previous authors have arrived at contradictory conclusions regarding the existence and relative importance of the anomalies, and the intent of this paper is to help clarify the issues. An empirical method used in a previous study of these issues is replicated and applied to a new set of firms—those traded on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). This approach assures comparability with previous results and provides a sample with different market value and E/P distributions. The results from the AMEX suggest that the size effect and the E/P effect both exist and that the size effect is predominant. These results persist even after accounting for the January effect.     

RATIONAL INVESTORS' REACTION TO UNCERTAINTY: EVIDENCE FROM THE WORLD'S MAJOR MARKETS

This paper examines the reaction of rational investors to unexpected information across the world's major markets. The empirical results provide considerable support for the Uncertain Information Hypothesis and limited support for the Overreaction Hypothesis. In addition, it is found that investors are compensated for post-event increased volatility across these major markets.     

INFORMATION AND NOISE IN FINANCIAL MARKETS: EVIDENCE FROM THE E‐MINI INDEX FUTURES

I examine the informational contributions and effects on transitory volatility of trades initiated by different types of traders in three actively traded index futures markets. The results show that trades initiated by exchange member firms account for more than 60% of price discovery during the trading day. These institutional trades appear to be more informative than trades of individual exchange members or off‐exchange traders. I also find that off‐exchange traders introduce more noise into the prices than do exchange members. My findings provide new evidence on the role of different types of traders in the price formation process.     

THE HOLIDAY EFFECT IN STOCK RETURNS: EVIDENCE FROM THE OTC MARKET

The patterns of daily returns in over-the-counter (OTC) stocks are examined to determine if a holiday effect exists in the OTC market. For the sample period of 1973–1989, test results provide evidence of unusually high returns on pre-holiday trading days and unusually low returns on post-holiday trading days in the OTC market. Additional analyses indicate that other documented calendar anomalies do not cause the pre-holiday effect, but the day-of-the-week effect apparently drives the post-holiday effect.