Investor sentiment and return predictability of disagreement

This study examines the influence of investor sentiment on the relationship between disagreement among investors and future stock market returns. We find that the relationship between disagreement and future stock market returns time-varies with the degree of investor sentiment. Higher disagreement among investors’ opinions predicts significantly lower future stock market returns during high-sentiment periods, but it has no significant effect on future stock market returns during low-sentiment periods. Our findings imply that investor sentiment is related to several causes of short-sale impediments suggested in the previous literature on investor sentiment, and that the stock return predictability of disagreement is driven by investor sentiment. We demonstrate that investor sentiment has a significant impact on the stock market return predictability of disagreement through in-sample and out-of-sample analyses. In addition, the profitability of our suggested trading strategy exploiting disagreement and investor sentiment level confirms the economic significance of incorporating investor sentiment into the relationship between disagreement among investors and future stock market returns.     

Bank Earnings Management and Tail Risk during the Financial Crisis

We show that a pattern of earnings management in bank financial statements has little bearing on downside risk during quiet periods, but seems to have a big impact during a financial crisis. Banks demonstrating more aggressive earnings management prior to 2007 exhibit substantially higher stock market risk once the financial crisis begins as measured by the incidence of large weekly stock price “crashes” as well as by the pattern of full‐year returns. Stock price crashes also predict future deterioration in operating performance. Bank regulators may therefore interpret them as early warning signs of impending problems.     

Dependences and volatility spillovers between the oil and stock markets: New evidence from the copula and VAR-BEKK-GARCH models

This paper examines the dynamic relationship between the oil market and stock markets from two perspectives: dependence between the crude oil market (WTI) and stock markets of the US and China, and volatility spillovers between them during 1991–2016. We further analyze structural breaks of market dependences and consider the extent of their influence on such relationships. Our vine-copula results show that the dependences between the three paired markets, WTI-US, WTI-China and US-China, vary dynamically across the six identified structural break periods. In particular, the dependence between WTI-US is stronger and more volatile than that between WTI-China during most of the periods. The dependence between US-China remains at a lower level in the earlier periods, but increases in the final period. Our VAR-BEKK-GARCH results demonstrate distinctive volatility spillovers across these periods, with varying directionality, in response to the structural changes. Overall, our results indicate that the oil market stimulates rapid and continual fluctuations in market dependences, which become manifest most acutely in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis of 2007–08, demonstrating the increasing interdependence between the oil and stock markets. Further, the growing influence of China on the dynamics of these relationships, in the period following the Great Recession, presents evidence that it begins to assume an increasingly important role in global economic recovery.     

The determinants of stock–bond return correlations

I study the options-implied market risks that affect US stock–bond correlations from 2007 to 2021. I discover that US stock and bond market uncertainty, stock market tail risk, and global credit-default risk are dominant contributors to changing stock–bond correlations during the global financial crisis (GFC) period. However, these market risks collectively contribute much less to time-varying correlations in the post-GFC period. Furthermore, stock–bond correlations rise in times of rising US and global bond market risks. Rising stock market uncertainty raises stock–bond correlations in the GFC period but lowers them in the post-GFC period. My results disentangle the risks of stock and bond markets and show that equity tail risk, bond market risk, and stock market uncertainty are dominant factors in changing stock–bond diversification benefits in periods of market turmoil.     

Stock Returns and Operating Performance of Securities Issuers

We examine long‐run stock returns and operating performance around firms’ offerings of common stock, convertible debt, and straight debt from 1985 to 1990. We find that pre‐issue abnormal returns are positive and significant for stock issuers, but not for convertible and straight debt issuers. The post‐issue mean returns show that common stock and convertible debt issuers experience underperformance during the post‐issue periods, but straight debt issuers do not. Consistent with these results, common stock issuers experience the best pre‐issue operating performance among all three types of issuers, and operating performance declines during the post‐issue periods for common stock and convertible debt issuers. Using a new approach in linear model estimations to correct heteroskedasticity and to adjust for finite sample, we find a positive relation between post‐issue operating performance and issue‐period stock price reactions. The results suggest that future operating performance is anticipated at the issue and that securities issues provide information on issuers’ future performance.     

Do Proprietary Algorithmic Traders Withdraw Liquidity during Market Stress?

We investigate the role of proprietary algorithmic traders in facilitating liquidity in a limit order market. Using order‐level data from the National Stock Exchange of India, we find that proprietary algorithmic traders increase limit order supply following periods of both high short‐term stock‐specific volatility and extreme stock price movement. Even following periods of high marketwide volatility, they do not decrease their supply of liquidity. We define orders from high‐frequency traders as a subclass of orders from proprietary algorithmic traders that are revised in less than three milliseconds. The behavior of high‐frequency trading mimics the behavior of its parent class. This is inconsistent with the theory that fast traders leave the market when stress situations arise, although their limit‐order‐supplying behavior becomes weaker when the increase in short‐term volatility is more informational than transitory. Agency algorithmic traders and nonalgorithmic traders behave opposite to proprietary algorithmic traders by reducing the supply of liquidity during stress situations. The presence of faster traders in the market possibly instills the fear of adverse selection in them. We document that the order imbalance of agency algorithmic traders is positively related to future short‐term returns, whereas the order imbalance of proprietary algorithmic traders is negatively related to future short‐term returns.     

恒生指数和沪深300股指期货套期保值效果对比研究

本文利用OLS、ECM、ECM-GARCH模型对沪深300股指期货和恒生指数期货的最优套期保值率进行了估算,并在风险最小化框架下对它们的套期保值效果进行了对比研究。结果发现:无论是哪种股指期货,不考虑期现货间存在的协整关系会使估算的最优套期保值率偏高,影响套期保值效果;其次是虽然在样本内外,沪深300股指期货的套期保值效果比恒生指数期货的好,但是沪深300股指期货套期保值效果的稳定性比恒生指数差。此时,ECM-GARCH和OLS模型分别为样本内外投资者利用沪深300指数期货进行套期保值时的最佳选择;对于恒生指数股指期货,最优模型是ECM。     

Loan loss provisions and return predictability: A dynamic perspective

This paper examines the impact of loan loss provisions (LLPs) on return predictability during 1994–2017. We find that on average, LLPs are negatively associated with one year ahead stock returns. This effect is particularly significant during the global financial crisis but much weaker during the Basel II and III periods. Consistent with these findings, a long–short trading strategy based on LLPs generates positive abnormal returns during the Basel II and III periods but negative abnormal returns during the financial crisis. Cross-sectional tests show that this effect is more pronounced among banks with greater information asymmetry. Decomposition of LLPs suggests that these findings are driven mainly by nondiscretionary LLPs. Overall, our results suggest that the relationship between LLPs and future stock returns is not linear but contingent on bank regulations and macroeconomic conditions.     

Equilibrium moment restrictions on asset returns: normal and crisis periods

Empirically, the covariance between stock returns varies with their volatility. We seek a robust theoretical explanation of this. With minimal assumptions, we model stochastic properties of equilibrium returns which result from the interaction between inter-temporal traders and noisy, price-sensitive short-term traders. The inter-temporal traders can have arbitrary investment rules, preferences and information. In all cases we find a set of restrictions between second moments of equilibrium returns. With two assets there is also a bound on the correlation between asset returns. Estimation with second moments of global stock returns supports our theoretical framework. Higher volatility in at least one market can increase comovement among markets. With globalization, covariances between two stock markets can also affect covariances between two other stock markets. We also find that the changes in trader behavior between normal and crisis periods lead to changes in the moment restrictions between asset returns.     

Aggregate consumption spending,the stock market and asymmetric error correction

In this study, we show how changes in wealth resulting from unanticipated changes in the value of equity holdings begin a process whereby households alter consumption growth in order to close the gap between actual and target spending. Because of changing uncertainty or equity price volatility over the stock market cycle, we found the time path of this adjustment to exhibit near-random walk behaviour during stock market downturns. Conversely, during ‘boom’ periods, e.g. when the value of equities held by households was greater than the threshold, the growth in consumer spending was quick to eliminate the disparity between actual and target spending.     

Media sentiment and short stocks performance during a systemic crisis

During crisis periods, investors often engage in short selling of stocks, in line with their pessimistic view of the present and future market performance as well as with the hope to repurchase the stocks back in the future at much lower prices. This attitude not only affects stock returns, but also may lead to significant risk transmission among assets. Addressing this concern, our study examines the returns and volatility connectedness between media coverage index (MCI) and high short interest stocks during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. We document MCI as a net transmitter for all returns series, whereas the results for volatility series exhibits binary behavior, acting as either a transmitter or recipient depending on the considered sector of economic activity. We highlight that the healthcare and energy sector stocks behave as net recipients of both, returns and volatility; hence, a certain caution is required while including them in investment portfolios. Finally, the causality test indicates that the MCI is more strongly connected with stock returns than with volatilities, thus signaling that media, may not only provoke a rise in stock volatility, but cause intense risk transmission especially during a systemic crisis similar to Covid-19.     

Stock market reactions to R&D cuts used to manage earnings

Prior research shows that stock returns are positive when firms meet or beat analysts' consensus earnings forecasts but negative when they miss. Past studies also show that managers frequently cut research and development (R&D) expenses in order to meet the consensus forecast. This study shows that the stock market penalizes this behavior and exacts a discount to the market reward if beating the forecast requires cutting R&D. However, it is only a partial discount and firms are still better off managing R&D expenditures in the short run. This study also shows that the reductions in R&D are likely temporary, as firms tend to increase R&D spending in the subsequent periods. Investors appear to recognize these short-term cuts and treat them similarly to accruals.     

Measuring the impact of option market activity on the stock market: Bivariate point process models of stock and option transactions

I apply the bivariate Autoregressive Conditional Duration model of Engle and Lunde [2003. Trade and quotes: a bivariate point process. Journal of Financial Econometrics 1, 159–188] to stock and option market transactions. The first model uses option trades and stock trades. Shocks to option trade/option trade durations have a significant impact on option trade/stock trade durations. Higher implied volatility, larger stock and option market order imbalances, larger stock trades, larger spreads, smaller depths in the stock market and faster trading in the stock and option markets are all associated with faster trading in both markets. In the second model, option trade/option trade timing leads option trade/stock quote timing and several information-related stock and option market covariates impact the expected inter-market event durations.     

Transmission of the financial and sovereign debt crises to the EMU: Stock prices,CDS spreads and exchange rates

This paper tests for the transmission of the 2007–2010 financial and sovereign debt crises to fifteen EMU countries. We use daily data from 2003 to 2010 on country financial and non-financial stock market indexes to analyze the stock market returns for three country groups within EMU: North, South and Small. The following results hold for both the North and South European countries, while the smallest countries seem to be relatively isolated from international events. First, we find strong evidence of crisis transmission to European non-financials from US non-financials, but not for financials. Second, in order to test how the sovereign debt crisis affects stock market developments we split the crisis in pre- and post-Lehman sub periods. Results show that financials become significantly more dependent on changes in the difference between the Greek and German CDS spreads after Lehman’s collapse, compared to the pre-Lehman sub period. However, this increase is much smaller for non-financials. Third, before the crisis euro appreciations coincide with European stock market decreases, whereas this relationship reverses during the crisis. Finally, this reversal seems to be triggered by Lehman’s collapse.     

Asymmetric volatility spillovers between economic policy uncertainty and stock markets: Evidence from China

This study explores the spillovers between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and stock market realized volatility (RV). The monthly index of Chinese and US EPU and RV are used to analyze the pairwise directional spillovers. We find that RV is a net receiver that is more vulnerable to shocks from U.S. EPU than to shocks from Chinese EPU. We further decompose the RV into good and bad volatility to test the asymmetric spillover effect between the stock market and EPU. The results suggest that EPU has a bigger effect on bad volatility in the stock market throughout most of the sample period. However, we find that good volatility spillovers become larger during periods of stimulated reform, whereas bad volatility spillovers become larger during periods of international disputes. We show that Chinese stock market volatility is sensitive to both U.S. and Chinese EPU and that the spillover is asymmetric in different periods.     

Mean reversion in stock market prices: New evidence based on bull and bear markets

In this paper we test whether mean reversion in stock market prices presents a different behavior in bull and bear markets. We date the US bull and bear periods using Bry and Boschan (1971) algorithm. We examine the order of integration in the S&P 500 stock market index covering a daily period from August 1929 to December 2006 in bull and bear phases. Our results indicate the existence of different episodes of mean reversion, which mainly correspond to bull market periods.     

Intrinsic bubbles and Granger causality in the S&P 500: Evidence from long-term data

Results of research on whether changes in earnings can predict future stock returns are inconclusive. We add to this debate by using long-term data from 1871 to 2004 to examine the predictive power of changes in earnings in periods of intrinsic bubbles and in periods absent intrinsic bubbles. Our results show that accounting for bubbles is important in whether changes in earnings can predict future stock returns. In periods of no bubble, we find that changes in earnings Granger-cause future returns, whereas in periods of bubble, this Granger causality from changes in earnings to future returns cannot be found. We conclude that changes in earnings can predict future stock returns, but only in periods absent bubbles.     

Realized spill-over effects between stock and foreign exchange market: Evidence from regional analysis

We employ high frequency data to investigate the spill-over effect between stock and foreign exchange (FX) markets in terms of return higher moments. We find a positive and bidirectional realized volatility spill-over effect between stock and FX markets. This result holds regardless of market properties (developed vs. emerging) and periods (crisis vs. non-crisis). Interestingly, our empirical results support a negative and bidirectional realized skewness spill-over effect between stock and FX markets in emerging regions. Overall, our analyses emphasize that it is important to account for the informational transmission through volatility and skewness in financial markets, especially during the turbulent periods.     

Investor sentiment and the mean–variance relation

This study shows the influence of investor sentiment on the market's mean–variance tradeoff. We find that the stock market's expected excess return is positively related to the market's conditional variance in low-sentiment periods but unrelated to variance in high-sentiment periods. These findings are consistent with sentiment traders who, during the high-sentiment periods, undermine an otherwise positive mean–variance tradeoff. We also find that the negative correlation between returns and contemporaneous volatility innovations is much stronger in the low-sentiment periods. The latter result is consistent with the stronger positive ex ante relation during such periods.     

Valuation effects of international stock exchange listings

A comprehensive data set consisting of 346 U.S. firm stock listings on ten different stock exchanges is examined in order to determine the valuation consequences of listing on a foreign stock exchange. For the sample of U.S. firms listing abroad, abnormal returns in U.S. trading were: (1) positive around the date of acceptance on the foreign exchange; (2) negative on the first trading day; and (3) negative in the post-listing period for firms listing on the Tokyo and Basel exchanges. Tests for the equality of stock return variances between event periods and market model estimation periods failed to reveal a definitive impact.