Information advantage, short sales, and stock returns: Evidence from short selling reform in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 131-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xunan Feng ◽  
Kam C. Chan
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saqib Sharif ◽  
Hamish D. Anderson ◽  
Ben R. Marshall

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the announcement and implementation of short sales and margin trading regulation affects Chinese stock returns and trading volume. On 31 March 2010, the Chinese regulators launched a pilot programme, allowing short sales and margin trading for 50 Shanghai Stock Exchange and 40 Shenzhen Stock Exchange stocks. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses an event study approach to compare market model abnormal returns (ARs) of the pilot firms with two distinct matched firm samples. A volume event study is also conducted to examine abnormal trading activity surrounding the key events in the pilot stocks. Findings – Negative ARs follow both the announcement and implementation of short selling and margin trading. This suggests the negative impact of short sales dominates the positive impact of margin trading on an average. Volume also declines, which is consistent with uninformed investors’ seeking to avoid trading against informed traders. Originality/value – The paper appears to be the first to address the impact of both the announcement and implementation of short selling and margin trading rule changes on returns and liquidity using individual stock data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charilaos Mertzanis

Purpose The relationship between short selling, market volatility and liquidity remains an object of intensive research. However, empirical evidence is yet to provide a conclusive elucidation of this relationship by examining aspects of market fragmentation in the form of different market settings, different timing and different stocks under coverage, among others. This paper aims to contribute to the debate by investigating the impact of short selling on market volatility and liquidity in the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) under three different periods of short sales restrictions. Design/methodology/approach Two hypotheses are tested using econometric methodologies (co-integration and Granger-causality tools). Findings The empirical results indicate that when short selling is allowed, aggregate stock returns are in the short-term more volatile, but the liquidity of the market is not significantly affected. This might be the result of significant imbalances between supply and demand of stock caused by short-selling restrictions, leading to market price fluctuations. Research limitations/implications The analysis of empirical evidence needs further expansion and association with institutional firm-level and country-level elements to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of short selling on market volatility and liquidity. Practical implications Stock market regulation involving short-selling restrictions have different implications according to extent and degree of stringency of the restrictions as well as the market on which they are imposed. That is especially important for the assessment of the market impact of the recent European Union regulation on short selling that has been imposed upon all EU member-States alike. Social implications Financial regulation policy must balance the benefits and costs for retail investors of imposing short-selling restrictions on stock market trading. Originality/value First-time empirical evidence is provided on the impact of short selling regulations on market volatility and liquidity of ATHEX highlighting the potential effectiveness of regulation policy.


2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Tsong-Yue Lai ◽  
◽  
Hin Man Mak ◽  
Ko Wang ◽  
◽  
...  

Asset pricing models have been used extensively in the recent real estate literature to evaluate real estate performance and estimate required rates of return of properties. In this paper, we show that the CAPM and its variants will derive a biased result when short sales are not allowed in the market. This problem is particularly serious for Asian property markets where investors are not able to short sell real estate indexes as a substitute for short selling real properties. We also demonstrate that the bias resulting from the short-sale constraint is related to the supply-and-demand conditions in the local market.


2013 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina S. Chi ◽  
Morton Pincus ◽  
Siew Hong Teoh

ABSTRACT We find evidence that investors misprice information contained in book-tax differences (BTDs), measured as the ratio of taxable income to book income, TI/BI. Low TI/BI predicts worse earnings growth and abnormal stock returns than high TI/BI. We find that short sellers and insiders arbitrage BTD mispricing, but the arbitrage is imperfect because of constraints on short selling and insider trading. Under SFAS No. 109 the predictability is stronger for TEMP/BI, the temporary component of TI/BI, which reflects greater managerial discretion. The results are incremental to a large set of known accruals-based anomaly predictors. We suggest that a sunshine policy of disclosing a reconciliation of book and taxable incomes can reduce mispricing of BTDs and improve capital market resource allocation. Data Availability: Data are obtained from the public sources as indicated in the text.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-278
Author(s):  
Sang Buhm Hahn

This study investigates whether or not the short-selling behavioral bias of investors exists in the Korean stock market. We analyze how the weather bias related to climate factors affects short-selling traders, commonly known as informed traders. To do this we estimated the dynamic panel model using daily data and examined the relationship between market variables such as stock returns, short sale volume, non-short sale volume, total trading volume, and weather variables consisting of cloud cover and sunshine hours. This study shows that not only returns but also short selling volumes are all affected by weather factors. In the case of stock returns, both cloud cover and sunshine hours have a statistically significant impact on returns, and its sign is estimated to be inversely proportional to both factors. That is, we find that returns decrease on cloud days, but increase on sunny days. In terms of the trading behavior of the market participants, it is interesting to note that the trading volume decreases when the weather is blunted, But did not show any statistical significances. On the other hand, both the original and the seasonally adjusted weather factors of cloud cover have a statistically significant positive effect on the short-sale volume. This means that as the weather worsens, short-selling traders submit more orders, indicating the presence of behavioral bias.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-699
Author(s):  
Jaemin Kim ◽  
Joon-Seok Kim ◽  
Sean Sehyun Yoo

Purpose The authors investigate the 2008-2009 short-sales ban in Korea, one of the most comprehensive and restrictive short-selling bans worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to examine: whether the ban stopped a destabilizing effect, if there was any, of short-selling activities; whether the ban improved or deteriorated the informational efficiency or the price discovery process of the stock market; and whether the ban had any impact on market liquidity. Design/methodology/approach Multiple regression; vector autoregression analysis; and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity analysis. Findings The authors find no evidence that short-sales have a market-destabilizing effect and thus, restricting short-selling has a market-stabilizing effect. On the contrary, the short-selling ban is associated with an increase in return volatility and a deterioration of the price discovery process, particularly for the stocks without derivatives traded on them. The authors also find evidence of a liquidity decrease for short-sale intensive stocks. However, the evidence is inconclusive as to whether the market efficiency and liquidity changes are solely the result of the short-sales ban or the compound effects of both the ban and the concurrent progress of the financial crisis. Originality/value The literature does not provide a conclusive view on the effects of short-sales or restrictions thereof on the stock market. Also, the existing research on recent worldwide shorting bans often lack empirical scope (e.g. 32 stocks for UK; three weeks for USA). In contrast, the short-sales ban in the Korean stock market, one of the most comprehensive and restrictive short-selling bans worldwide, lasted for eight months for all the listed stocks and is still in effect for financial stocks. The authors find no evidence that short-sales have a market-destabilizing effect and thus, restricting short-selling has a market-stabilizing effect.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document