This thesis consists of three related essays that examine investors' order submission strategies during the pre-opening period on the Malta Stock Exchange. The pre-opening is a period of liquidity formation and price discovery characterised by the absence of trade execution. The three essays collectively examine the information content of the order book in relation to: the intensity of order submissions, the aggressiveness of investors' order placement strategy and the determination of returns generated over the pre-opening period.The first essay empirically investigates if public information concerning the current state of the order book impacts the duration between order arrivals. Utilizing an augmented ACD model, the research reveals that the information which can be inferred from the characteristics of incoming orders has a more significant impact on the intensity of buy order submissions as compared to sell order submissions during the pre-opening period. Furthermore, prospective buyers appear to be more responsive to liquidity provided by the sell side than the reverse. Locked or crossed order submissions tend to increases (decreases) the intensity of order flow on the own (opposite) side of the order book, corroborating Cao et al. (2000) that such order-types contain informative signals about the fundamental value of the asset.The second essay analyses the impact of limit order book information on the aggressiveness observed in the submission, revision and cancellation of limit orders during the market pre-opening period. The empirical results indicate that the aggressiveness of order submissions and forward price revisions react both to the existing and subsequent changes in the execution probability at market opening, driven in part by the depth on either side of the order book. The aggressiveness of order cancellations increases on both sides of the order book when the depth at the top of the ask order book increases. In addition, the results suggest that the order book height and size of the inside spread impacts the aggressiveness of order submissions, revisions and cancellations.The third essay studies the contribution of the pre-opening period to the daily price discovery process and the factors that impact the return generated over this period. The results indicate that approximately one third of daily price discovery occurs in the pre-opening period. In addition, the impact of relative depth and height of the overnight and opening order book are concentrated at the top of the order book. Furthermore, cumulative changes to relative depth attributable to order submissions most significantly impact the opening returns of less actively traded stocks. The results show a strong relationship between opening returns and cumulative changes in the relative height along the order book attributable to order submissions, cancellations and forward and backward price revisions over the pre-opening period.

Cette thèse est composée de trois chapitres distincts. Chacun de ces chapitres examine un impact spécifique de la concurrence entre les bourses sur les marchés financiers. Le chapitre 2 propose un modèle théorique afin d’analyser l’effet de la concurrence sur le rôle de certification offert par les bourses. Les résultats montrent que surestimer la qualité d’un projet est un équilibre malgré la présence des coûts de réputation. Le chapitre 3 analyse les effets du phénomène de conversion de structure organisationnelle des bourses de mutuelle-à-cotée sur la performance et sur la qualité de marché. Les résultats suggèrent que, bien que cette conversion améliore la performance financière des bourses, elle peut néanmoins nuire à la qualité de marché. Le chapitre 4 est une étude empirique de l’impact de la période de pré-ouverture sur la découverte des prix et la formation de la liquidité sur le marché primaire et sur les plateformes concurrentes. Les résultats montrent que les prix indicatifs de la période de pré-ouverture participent à la découverte des prix et contiennent également des informations particulièrement au début de la pré-ouverture. / This dissertation is made of three distinct chapters. Each of these chapters investigates a specific impact of the increased competition among stock exchanges in capital markets. Chapter 2 proposes a theoretical model to analyze the effect of competition on the quality of the certification process offered by stock exchanges. The findings show that overestimating the quality of a project is an equilibrium despite the presence of the reputation costs. Chapter 3 analyzes the effects of the mutual-to-stock conversion phenomenon on market performance and on market quality of listed exchanges. The results suggest that while stock exchange ownership conversion enhances the stock exchange financial performance, it may be detrimental to market quality. Chapter 4 empirically examines the impact of the pre-opening period of an incumbent market on price discovery and market liquidity on the primary market and on the competing venues. Results provide evidence that tentative prices during the pre-opening period participate to price discovery and also contain information particularly early during the pre-opening.

【第一篇論文中文摘要】 本文檢測公司負債合約中的利差是否可被最終的違約後償還率所解釋。透過1962年至2007年間在美國金融市場上發行但最後卻違約的負債合約資料來進行實證，發現違約後償還率的確有反映在發行時的利差上，且此關聯性會隨著美國開放商業銀行進行證券承銷業務後隨之更加顯著。我們並且進一步發現此償還率的資訊能更加有效反映原因與發行公司的資訊不對稱程度降低有關。此外，我們同時又發現此負債合約中的利差與違約後償還率的關聯性對於公司治理較差、以及非投資等級的發行公司會更為顯著。最後，我們的實證結果在考量內生問題、潛在可能遺漏解釋變數、以及其他模型設定後，仍同樣具有堅實性。 【第二篇論文中文摘要】 本文使用臺指選擇權的日內資料來探討選擇權提前交易期間是否具有資訊內涵與價格發現的功能。就作者所知，我們是第一篇透過選擇權資料探討提前交易期間資訊內涵的研究。首先，我們分別透過價、量、與高階動差三類資訊變數指標來衡量提前交易期間的資訊內涵。實證結果顯示：選擇權提前交易期間不只能有效反映隔夜資訊 (公開資訊)，且具有預測當日現貨指數開盤後5分鐘內股價指數移動的能力 (反應私有資訊)，說明提前交易期間的確具有資訊內涵與價格發現的功能。此外，我們進一步發現價平選擇權包含最強的資訊內涵，此應與投資人尋求交易流動性最高的價平選擇權來迅速實現其利潤以反映其資訊有關。最後，本研究亦發現前一日海外市場 (美國) 投資人情緒傳染效果的強度會影響提前交易期間選擇權的資訊內涵，而前一日是否交易 (週末效果與假日效果)則不會影響此資訊內涵。 / 【第一篇論文英文摘要】 We investigate whether the spread of corporate debt contacts can be explained by their ultimate recovery rates. Using the actual realized recovery rates of defaulted debt instruments issued in the U.S. from 1962 to 2007, we find that recovery rate is reflected in the spread at issuance, and that this relationship has become more significant since commercial banks were allowed to underwrite corporate securities. Our further investigation indicates that the enhanced informativeness of recovery rate can be attributed to the lowering of information asymmetry of individual firms. Besides, the relation between the spread at issuance and the recovery rate is stronger for weak corporate governance and non-investment grade issuers. Our conclusions are found to be robust to endogeneity issues, potentially omitted variables and alternative model specifications. 【第二篇論文英文摘要】 This study uses tick-by-tick data to examine the information content and price discovery of TAIEX option trading during the pre-opening period. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on the options market. We construct three groups of information variables to measure the information content of the pre-opening period, including the price, volume, and high moment information variables. We find that option trading during the pre-opening period not only can reflect the overnight information (public information) but also predict the 5-minute intraday returns after the opening of spot market (private information), showing the information content and price discovery of option trading during the pre-opening period. We also find that at-the-money options contain the strongest richness of information content, which may result from its highest liquidity. Finally, we also find that the empirical results would be stronger depending on the intensity of investor sentiment from overseas (U.S. market) of last day but not the length of hours without trading (weekend and holiday effect).