Efficiency of heterogeneity measures: an asset pricing perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Qin ◽  
Hongquan Zhu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the effective measures for heterogeneity and to uncover the relationship between investor heterogeneity and stock returns. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs dispersion in analysts’ earnings forecasts and unexpected trading volume as proxies of heterogeneity. Portfolio strategies and Fama-Macbeth regression are used to uncover the relationship between the two proxies and stock returns in the Chinese A-share market. Findings – The result indicates that stock returns are significantly related to unexpected trading volume, i.e., higher unexpected trading volume implies higher stock returns now but lower future stock returns. In contrast, there is no statistically significant relationship between analysts’ forecast dispersion and stock returns. Originality/value – The findings suggest that unexplained trading volume is an effective measure for investor heterogeneity in the Chinese A-share market.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mao He ◽  
Juncheng Huang ◽  
Hongquan Zhu

PurposeThe purpose of our study is to explore the “idiosyncratic volatility puzzle” in Chinese stock market from the perspective of investors' heterogeneous beliefs. To delve into the relationship between idiosyncratic volatility and investors' heterogeneous beliefs, and uncover the ability of heterogeneous beliefs, as well as to explain the “idiosyncratic volatility puzzle”, we construct our study as follows.Design/methodology/approachOur study adopts the unexpected trading volume as proxies of heterogeneity, the residual of Fama–French three-factor model as proxies of idiosyncratic volatility. Portfolio strategies and Fama–MacBeth regression are used to investigate the relationship between the two proxies and stock returns in Chinese A-share market.FindingsInvestors' heterogeneous beliefs, as an intermediary variable, are positively correlated with idiosyncratic volatility. Meanwhile, it could better demonstrate the negative correlation between the idiosyncratic volatility and future stock returns. It is one of the economic mechanisms linking idiosyncratic volatility to subsequent stock returns, which can account for 11.28% of the puzzle.Originality/valueThe findings indicate that idiosyncratic volatility is significantly and positively correlated with heterogeneous beliefs and that heterogeneous beliefs are effective intervening variables to explain the “idiosyncratic volatility puzzle”.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1250-1270
Author(s):  
Han Ching Huang ◽  
Pei-Shan Tung

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the underlying option impacts an insider’s propensity to purchase and sell before corporate announcements, the proportion of insiders’ trading after announcements relative to before announcements, and the insider’s profitability around corporate announcements. Design/methodology/approach The authors test whether the timing information and option have impacted on the tendency of insider trade, the percentage of all shares traded by insiders in the post-announcement to pre-announcement periods and the average cumulative abnormal stock returns during the pre-announcement period. Findings Insiders’ propensity to trade before announcements is higher for stocks without options listed than for stocks with traded options. This result is stronger for unscheduled announcements than for scheduled ones. The proportion of insiders’ trade volume after announcements relative to before announcements in stocks that have not options listed is higher than those in stocks with traded options. The positive relationship between the insiders’ signed volume and the informational content of corporate announcements is stronger in stocks without traded options than in stocks with options listed. Insider trades prior to unscheduled announcement are more profitable than those before scheduled ones. Research limitations/implications The paper examines whether there is a difference between the effects of optioned stock and non-optioned stock. Roll et al. (2010) use the relative trading volume of options to stock ratio (O/S) to proxy for informed options trading activity. Future research could explore the impact of O/S. Moreover, the authors examine how insiders with private information use such information to trade in their own firms. Mehta et al. (2017) argue that insiders also use private information to facilitate trading (shadow trading) in linked firms, such as supply chain partners or competitors. Therefore, future research could consider the impact of shadow trading. Social implications Since the insider’s propensity to buy before announcements in stocks without options listed is larger than in stocks with traded options and the relationship is stronger for unscheduled announcements than for scheduled ones, the efforts of regulators should focus on monitoring insider trading in stocks without options listed prior to unscheduled announcements. Originality/value First, Lei and Wang (2014) find that the increasing pattern of insider’s propensity to trade before unscheduled announcements is larger than that before scheduled announcements. The authors document the underlying option has impacted the insider’s propensity to purchase and sell, and the relationship is stronger for unscheduled announcements than for scheduled ones. Second, related studies show insider’s trading activity has shifted from periods before corporate announcements to periods after corporate announcements to decrease litigation risk. This paper find the underlying option has influenced the proportion of insiders’ trading after announcements relative to before announcements when the illegal insider trade-related penalties increase.


2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique Bessière ◽  
Taoufik Elkemali

Purpose – This article aims to examine the link between uncertainty and analysts' reaction to earnings announcements for a sample of European firms during the period 1997-2007. In the same way as Daniel et al., the authors posit that overconfidence leads to an overreaction to private information followed by an underreaction when the information becomes public. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the authors test analysts' overconfidence through the overreaction preceding a public announcement followed by an underreaction after the announcement. If overconfidence occurs, over- and underreactions should be, respectively, observed before and after the public announcement. If uncertainty boosts overconfidence, the authors predict that these two combined misreactions should be stronger when uncertainty is higher. Uncertainty is defined according to technology intensity, and separate two types of firms: high-tech or low-tech. The authors use a sample of European firms during the period 1997-2007. Findings – The results support the overconfidence hypothesis. The authors jointly observe the two phenomena of under- and overreaction. Overreaction occurs when the information has not yet been made public and disappears just after public release. The results also show that both effects are more important for the high-tech subsample. For robustness, the authors sort the sample using analyst forecast dispersion as a proxy for uncertainty and obtain similar results. The authors also document that the high-tech stocks crash in 2000-2001 moderated the overconfidence of analysts, which then strongly declined during the post-crash period. Originality/value – This study offers interesting insights in two ways. First, in the area of financial markets, it provides a test of a major over- and underreaction model and implements it to analysts' reactions through their revisions (versus investors' reactions through stock returns). Second, in a broader way, it deals with the link between uncertainty and biases. The results are consistent with the experimental evidence and extend it to a cross-sectional analysis that reinforces it as pointed out by Kumar.


1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orie E. Barron ◽  
Pamela S. Stuerke

This study examines whether dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts reflects uncertainty about firms' future economic performance. Prior research examining this issue has been inconclusive. These studies have concluded that forecast dispersion is likely to reflect factors other than uncertainty about future cash flows, such as uncertainty about the price irrelevant component of firms' financial reports (Daley et al. [1988]; Imhoff and Lobo [1992]). Abarbanell et al. (1995) argue that, if forecast dispersion after (i.e., conditional on) an earnings announcement reflects uncertainty about firms' future cash flows and this uncertainty causes investors to desire additional information, then dispersion will be positively associated with both (a) the level of demand for more information and (b) the magnitude of price reactions around the subsequent earnings release. In this study, we construct a measure of informational demand using the incidence of analyst forecast updating after dispersion is measured. We find a positive association between dispersion in earnings forecasts after an earnings release and this measure of informational demand. We also find a positive association between forecast dispersion and the magnitude of price reactions around subsequent earnings releases. These associations are most apparent when potentially stale (or outdated) forecasts are removed from measures of forecast dispersion. These associations also persist after controlling for other measures of uncertainty (e.g., beta and the variance of daily stock returns), consistent with dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts serving as a useful indicator of uncertainty about the price relevant component of firms' future earnings.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel Pardo ◽  
Eddie Santandreu

PurposeThe study aims to test the existence of a meeting clustering effect in the Spanish Stock Exchange (SSE).Design/methodology/approachThis paper studies the relationship between the clustering of annual general meetings and stock returns in the SSE. A multivariate analysis is carried out in order to analyse the relationship between monthly returns and the clustering of general meetings in the SSE.FindingsThe authors show that meeting clustering exists and that some months exhibit significant and positive additional returns related to the holding of ordinary or extraordinary general meetings.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors have explored some possible explanations for the meeting clustering effect, such as a potential link with the “Halloween” effect or the presence of higher-than-normal levels of volatility, trading volumes or investor attention. However, none of these can explain the meeting clustering effect that emerges as a new anomaly in the SSE.Practical implicationsThe authors have documented significant and positive abnormal returns in some months that coincide with the holding of general meetings. Therefore, the holding of ordinary and/or extraordinary meetings in some months involves the release of relevant information for investors.Originality/valueThis study complements the financial literature because it is focused on the clustering of meetings and its effect on a stock market whose legal order is based on civil law. This fact allows us to shed new light on meeting clustering and its effect on other types of markets.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinan Liu ◽  
Apostolos Serletis

PurposeTo investigate the complex relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a bivariate VARMA, GARCH-in-mean, asymmetric BEKK model to investigate the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.FindingsUsing monthly inflation and equity returns data for the G7 and EM7 economies, we find that the effects of inflation and inflation uncertainty on equity returns vary across countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe mixed evidence we find potentially reflects the changing dynamics, policy regimes, economic shocks and country-specific factors (such as differences in the financing patterns of enterprises and the legal and financial environments) across the G7 and EM7 countries.Practical implicationsWe contribute to the empirical literature in the following ways. First, we rely on a wide sample of countries, including both developed and emerging economies. Second, we extend previous research by estimating a GARCH-in-mean model of monthly equity returns in which both realized returns and their conditional volatility are allowed to vary with inflation. Previous articles that studied the relationship between inflation and stock market returns generally sought time-invariant effects of inflation on stock returns.Social implicationsThe paper helps to reconcile the divergent results of previous empirical studies and distinguish between alternative explanations of the relationship between inflation and equity returns.Originality/valueOur study provides an improved comprehension of the ambiguous relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns under various central bank mandates and different levels of central bank independence. The mixed empirical evidence across countries we present provides insights for the macroeconomic models that consider the relationship between uncertainty and macroeconomic performance as a fundamental building block. Therefore, our empirical study calls for further work on the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-428
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Panagiotou ◽  
Alkistis Tseriki

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between closing prices and trading volume in the livestock futures markets of lean hogs, live cattle and feeder cattle. Design/methodology/approach The parametric quantile regressions methodology is used. Daily data between January 1, 2010 and July 31, 2019 were used. Findings Findings suggest that the relationship between the two variables is non-linear. Price-volume relationship is positive (negative) under positive (negative) returns. Furthermore, co-movement is weaker at the lower quantiles and stronger at the higher quantiles. Results are in line with the empirical findings of the price-volume relationship in six agricultural futures markets from the study by Fousekis and Tzaferi (2019). Originality/value This is the first study that uses the parametric quantile regressions method in the livestock futures market, to examine the returns-volume dependence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1065-1077
Author(s):  
Serkan Karadas ◽  
William McAndrew ◽  
Minh Tam Tammy Schlosky

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of corruption on stock returns in the USA. In particular, this study examines the relationship between corruption in a state (i.e. local corruption) and stock returns of firms headquartered in that state (i.e. local returns). Design/methodology/approach This paper uses the Fama–MacBeth two-step regressions. In the first step, the authors estimate the coefficients on the market, size, value and momentum factors for individual stocks. In the second step, they use those coefficients along with the corruption score of the state where stocks are headquartered to explain stock returns. Findings This paper finds that corruption in a state adversely affects stock returns of firms headquartered in that state. It further documents that the effect of corruption on stock returns is limited to geographically concentrated firms. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to document the effect of state-level corruption on individual stock returns in the USA using the Fama–MacBeth regressions. This study contributes to the literature by documenting the effect of local corruption on local stock returns in a low corruption country.


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