Raymond M. Brooks

How the Equity Market Responds to Unanticipated Events

We examine the market reaction of prices, volume, spreads, and trading location when firms experience events that are totally unanticipated by the equity market in terms of both timing and content. We find that the response time is longer than previous studies have reported. Selling pressure, wider spreads, and higher volume remain significant for over an hour. We also find an immediate price reaction for overnight events; however, the market takes longer to react to events that occur when it is open. These findings may shed light on the efficacy of trading halts.

The individual investor and the weekend effect: A reexamination with intraday data

Abstract It is a well known empirical finding that returns, on average, are negative on Monday. Miller (1988) suggests that this anomaly could be the result of individual investor trading activity. Lakonishok and Maberly (1990) and Abraham and Ikenberry (1994) use odd-lot trading as a proxy for individual investor trading patterns and find evidence consistent with this individual investor hypothesis. We reexamine investor trading activity using intraday trades and the size of transactions to proxy for individual and institutional investors. We find that trading activity is significantly lower on Monday for large-size trades. Moreover, small-size trades have a higher percentage of sell orders on Monday morning compared to other days of the week. If small-size trades reflect individual investor activity and large-size trades reflect institutional investors then both types of investors play a role in the negative return on Monday. The individual traders directly contribute through their trading and institutional traders indirectly contribute through their withdrawal of liquidity.

A Simple Cost Reduction Strategy for Small Liquidity Traders: Trade at the Opening

We extend the market microstructure literature by examining trading strategies of a small discretionary liquidity trader in call and continuous markets. Our investigation of trading strategies uses intraday market and limit orders, and introduces the market-at-open order as an alternative strategy for a small liquidity trader. We find that a small trader can reduce transaction costs by trading at the opening. Using tick-by-tick transaction data, we demonstrate that the market-at-open order consistently produces better prices than market and limit orders executed during the trading day.

A Bias in Closing Prices: The Case of the When-Issued Pricing Anomaly

Financial studies examining stock price behavior have principally relied on end-of-day data. This paper illustrates a bias in closing prices by reexamining the when-issue pricing anomaly with intraday data. With intraday data, major portions of the pricing anomaly can be explained by: a nonsynchronous matching of trades; a difference in the settlement procedures (labeled time value of money in Choi and Strong (1983)); a mismatching of market purchases with market sales (first proposed by Lamoureux and Wansley (1989)); and a higher frequency of market purchases relative to market sales. In addition, the small remaining portion of the anomaly cannot be arbitraged. The remaining premium is attributed to a lower level of limit order competition and an order imbalance in the when-issued shares.

The performance of firms before and after they adopt accounting-based performance plans

Abstract This paper examines the long-run performance of firms before and after they adopt accounting-based performance plans. We test if the change in compensation policy is a response to a prior performance problem or is a signal to the market that firm performance will improve over current performance levels. Our findings are consistent with the signaling hypothesis. Stock prices increase at the announcement of the adoption of a performance plan apparently signaling previously private information regarding improved future performance. A related benefit of adoption may well be a better incentive-alignment contract for managers and shareholders but the strongest evidence points to a credible disclosure of future performance.

Information conveyed by seasoned security offerings: evidence from components of the bid-ask spread

Abstract We examine the relationship between the degree of informational asymmetry surrounding a firm and the equity markets reaction to a firms announcement to sell seasoned securities. We use the adverse-selection component of the bid–ask spread as a proxy for the informational asymmetry of a firm. For equity offers, we find that the greater the change in information asymmetry at announcement, the greater the decline in wealth. In addition, the largest decline in wealth for seasoned equity announcements is observed for firms with the largest level of pre-event adverse-selection components. For debt offers, the wealth decline is only significant for firms with the largest pre-event levels of asymmetric information.

Emerging from Bankruptcy with When‐Issued Trading

We examine the set of firms that emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and traded on a when‐issued basis before their official return to the regular way in NASDAQ, Amex, or NYSE. We find that this when‐issued market is liquid and price efficient. The when‐issued closing price is a good indicator of the first closing price in the regular way market. Emerging firms that have when‐issued trading experience lower regular way volatility and smaller relative spreads than those without when‐issued trading. Our probit regressions show that firm size is an important determinant of the adoption of when‐issued trading.

Large price movements and short-lived changes in spreads, volume, and selling pressure

Abstract In this paper we examine changes in dollar and relative bid-ask spreads of stocks following large price movements. We investigate large increases and decreases separately and link our results to current market microstructure theories on trading activities and spreads. We also look at changes in volume and selling pressure to interpret the changes in trading activity. Our results show that the market reacts differently to price increases and decreases. For large price decreases, trading increases on the sell side even when spreads have increased. For large price increases, trading increases on the buy side during a period of higher spreads. However, the increases in dollar spreads and price pressure are most pronounced at the end of trading day. Our results are consistent with microstructure models that link trading activities and costs to the level of asymmetric information.

What Makes When‐Issued Trading Attractive to Financial Markets?

When‐issued trading is the trading of securities prior to the actual issue of the security. When‐issued trading is active around the world and in a variety of equity and bond markets. In this survey, we provide a general description of when‐issued trading, analyze benefits and costs in various financial markets, present existing theoretical models and predictions, and synthesize empirical findings. We find that when‐issued trading promotes price discovery, mitigates information asymmetry, provides convenience for trading ahead of the actual issue of the security, and in some markets reduces volatility. In addition, we offer policy implications and suggest directions for further research in this area.