Richard Yan-Ki Ho

The components of the bid-ask spread in a limit-order market: evidence from the Tokyo Stock Exchange

Abstract This paper analyzes the components of the bid–ask spread in the limit-order book of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). While the behavior of spread components in U.S. markets has been extensively studied, little is known about the spread components in a pure limit-order market. We find that both the adverse selection and order handling cost components of the TSE exhibit U-shape patterns independently, in contrast to the findings of Madhavan et al. [Rev. Financ. Stud. 10 (1997) 1035] for U.S. stocks. On the TSE, there does not exist an upstairs market that allows large trades to be prenegotiated or certified as on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This feature of the TSE provides a valuable opportunity to examine the relationship between trade size and spread components. Our results show that the adverse selection cost increases with trade size while order handling cost decreases with it.

Seasonal pattern in volatility in Asian stock markets

Using the Levene test, it is found that there exist day-of-the-week variations in volatility in most of the emerging Asian stock markets. Monday returns, in general, have the lowest volatility for all the emerging Asian markets except Korea. Three of the five markets that have significant day-of-the-week effect in volatility have the lowest volatility on the last trading day of the week. It is also found that the close-market effect is not a good explanation of the volatility pattern across day-of-the-week.

Intraday stock return volatility: The Hong Kong evidence

Abstract The intraday market return volatility of the Hong Kong stock market, when plotted against the time of the day, follows a double U-shaped pattern. This pattern is different from that of U.S. because of the existence of a session when the market is closed for two hours for the lunchbreak. Another feature of the Hong Kong market that is different from the U.S. is that the open-to-close return variance and the close- to-open return variance is not significantly different from each other. This may be due to the fact that, the close-to-open period is not actually a non-trading session as some of the major Hong Kong stocks are being traded in the London market. Analysis of individual stocks shows that the Hong Kong stocks traded on the London Stock Exchange, after the trading hours of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, exhibit a lower open-to-open return variance (versus the close-to-close return variance) and a less negative open-to-open return autocorrelation than those that are not traded on the London Stock Exchange.

Metacognitive development and moving away

It is now largely accepted that social and cultural factors have a significant impact on cognitive development in children. Piaget acknowledged the impact of social factors and peer interaction on cognitive development. However, there has been relatively little work on the impact of social and cultural factors on the development of metacognition in first‐year university students. Using the Learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI) as a measure of metacognition, this study samples first‐year undergraduates in Hong Kong (N = 1815) and identifies significant differences in metacognitive abilities between students living in their home environment and those who have moved away from their family and, in some cases, culture, to pursue undergraduate education.

Intraday prices and trading volume relationship in an emerging Asian market - Hong Kong☆

Abstract Using 15-minute data on stock returns and trading volume on one of the most open markets in Asia-Hong Kong, it is found that the return series has both day-of-the-week and time-of-the-day effects while the volume series is dominated by the time-of-the-day effect. There exists a significantly positive relationship between the absolute returns and trading volume and the relationship is asymmetric in that the relationship is stronger for positive returns than for non-positive ones. It is also found that returns cause volume changes unidirectionally in the sense of Granger.

Market closure effects on return, volatility, and turnover patterns in the Hong Kong index futures market

Abstract This paper examines the market closure effect of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK) on the intraday behaviour of the index futures contract which continues to trade for 5–15 min after the close of the SEHK. The behaviour of the index futures market in Hong Kong is consistent with the contagion model of King and Wadhwani (1990) in that the close of the SEHK leads to an immediate downturn in the return, volatility, and turnover in the index futures market. The long period of nontrading before the morning also leads to a higher morning volatility and turnover.

The Hong Kong Securities Markets: Review and Prospects

The Hong Kong securities markets have achieved the status of regional prominence in that they were ranked number two in Asia after Japan in early 1997. There is also a growing presence of overseas institutional trade from US and UK showing that the Hong Kong market is getting more internationalized. However, the ownership of Hong Kongs corporations is still closely held by a single shareholder or a group of close family members. Apart from the listing of mainland Chinese enterprises equities, Hong Kong should also look at the opportunities of the trading of Renminbi based derivative instruments and the listing of bonds and equities for corporations in other Asia economies.The Hong Kong securities markets have achieved the status of regional prominence in that they were ranked number two in Asia after Japan in early 1997. There is also a growing presence of overseas institutional trade from US and UK showing that the Hong Kong market is getting more internationalized. However, the ownership of Hong Kongs corporations is still closely held by a single shareholder or a group of close family members. Apart from the listing of mainland Chinese enterprises equities, Hong Kong should also look at the opportunities of the trading of Renminbi based derivative instruments and the listing of bonds and equities for corporations in other Asia economies.

Price Discovery, Foreign Ownership, and Rule of Law

We examine the relation between intra-day price discovery and proxies for financial openness and investor accessibility using a sample of intra-day price and quote data of 1,504 stocks from 23 emerging markets. We measure price discovery by weighted price contribution across segments of the trading day. There is a reliable relation between price discovery in early trading and direct foreign ownership, controlling for other factors. We project foreign ownership onto proxies for private information and investor recognition. The residual from the projection regression captures the impact of unknown factors. We find that the role of private information is much more important than investor recognition and unknown factor in facilitating price discovery.

Endogeneity bias in beta estimation: Thailand and Hong Kong

Abstract This paper shows that the OLS estimates for beta in a small stock market are likely to be biased upward because of endogenous market returns. Applying the Hausman test to the monthly stock return data for Thailand and Hong Kong, we find the OLS estimates inconsistent. The OLS estimates are larger than the consistent estimates obtained by the instrumental method. This confirms our expectation that the OLS estimates are biased upward.

Correlation structure forecasting & ex ante portfolio selection strategies in the Japan market

Using monthly data for 160 stocks covering January 1977 to December 1991, we find that both the Historical Mean and the Industry Mean Models dominate the Global Mean and the Single Index Models. In theex-ante portfolio selection, the Historical Model dominates all other models when evaluated against the benchmark of the Global Minimum Variance Portfolio but a combination of historical correlation structure and Bayes-Stein Shrinkage expected returns dominates other models when the Optimal Tangency Portfolio is used as a benchmark for evaluation.