This paper will examine the effects of inside information on bid-ask spreads when the probability of insider trading and the likelihood of an informational event occurring varies using a theoretical, simulation-based approach. The results show that bid-ask spreads narrow as the number of time periods increase, regardless of probability of insider trading or the likelihood of an informational event occurring. For a high, given likelihood of an informational event occurring, the highest average spreads were found for lower probabilities of insider trading as time increased. For a high, given probability of insider trading, the highest average spreads were found for lower likelihoods of an informational event occurring as time increased. The variances increased along with the probability of insider trading as well as with the likelihood of an informational event occurring. The maximum average spread settled near 0.25, typically found for a probability of insider trading of 1 and a likelihood of an information event occurring of 0.5. The results verify previous research done by Glosten and Milgrom (1985), Easley, Hvidkjaer and O’Hara (2002) and Potterton (2011). The results also may reconcile the differences between the findings of Easley, Hvidkjaer and O’Hara (2002) and Potterton (2011).

This dissertation consists of 3 essays that examine the impact of electronic screen trading in futures markets. The research provides empirical evidence on increasingly significant issues given the rapid global advances in technology used in securities markets. Each essay addresses the scarcity of conclusive research in order to aid researchers, regulators, exchange policy makers and systems builders as they confront issues related to electronic trading systems.

As one of the oldest and most innovative financial institutions, a clearinghouse efficiently clears and settles payments for equity transactions as well as other securities. However, this paper will only be concerned with common and preferred equity securities. The purpose of a clearinghouse is to reduce counterparty risk. It acts as an intermediary between two parties, so that the risk of one party failing to honor its contractual obligation is diminished. It reduces settlement risk through netting, the process of eliminating offsetting transactions, thus decreasing the amount of cash flow. I examine the impact of the New York Stock Exchange Clearinghouse upon its establishment in May 1892. Specifically, I analyze the clearinghouse’s effect on trading costs for different equity securities, scrutinizing the effects on bid-ask spreads. I find that once a firm joined the NYSE clearinghouse, both its relative and absolute bid-ask spreads are narrowed, representing an overall reduction in spreads of 5.28 percent.

This paper examines the effects of disclosures on information asymmetry by studying bid-ask spreads around independent management forecasts and earnings announcements released with forecasts. The findings suggest the disclosure of independent management forecasts increase information asymmetry in the market rather than resolving it. Regulation FD has reduced the overall level of information asymmetry in the market with respect to both earnings announcements and management forecasts although it has a greater effect on management forecasts, post-forecast spreads. Closer analysis reveals that when “good news” forecasts and separated from “bad news” independent management forecasts, good news management forecasts decrease information asymmetry. Since initial tests demonstrated that management forecasts increase information asymmetry, these findings suggests that the magnitude of the effect of bad news management forecasts is greater than that of good news forecasts.

This dissertation consists of 3 essays that examine the impact of electronic screen trading in futures markets. The research provides empirical evidence on increasingly significant issues given the rapid global advances in technology used in securities markets. Each essay addresses the scarcity of conclusive research in order to aid researchers, regulators, exchange policy makers and systems builders as they confront issues related to electronic trading systems.

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Yes / The study examines the impact of liquidity risk on freight derivatives returns. The Amihud liquidity ratio and bid–ask spreads are utilized to assess the existence of liquidity risk in the freight derivatives market. Other macroeconomic variables are used to control for market risk. Results indicate that liquidity risk is priced and both liquidity measures have a significant role in determining freight derivatives returns. Consistent with expectations, both liquidity measures are found to have positive and significant effects on the returns of freight derivatives. The results have important implications for modeling freight derivatives, and consequently, for trading and risk management purposes.

This dissertation consists of five separate and self-contained essays. They have been written as distinct papers. Although there is a fair amount of overlap and cross-reference in analysis and discussion, the intention is that potential readers should be able to read them separately. Essay 1: An Empirical Analysis of the Trading Structure at the Stockholm Stock Exchange.This essay describes and analyzes the trading structure at the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In the empirical part, we report stylized facts based on intraday transaction and order book data, focusing on the intraday behavior of returns, trading activity, order placement and bid/ask spread, on the importance of the tick size and finally on some characteristics of the limit order book. Our main empirical conclusions are that a) the intraday U-shape in trading activity found in earlier U.S. studies on the whole also pertains to the Stockholm Stock Exchange, b) the limit order placement also follows an intraday U-shape, c) there is no distinct intraday pattern in returns, d) the volatility and bid/ask spread seems to be higher at the beginning of the trading day, e) the tick size is economically important, and f) the price impact of an order is a nonlinear function of its quantity, implying price inelastic demand and supply. Essay 2: An Empirical Analysis of the Trading Structure at the Stockholm Options and Forwards Exchange, OM.We first describe and analyze the trading structure at the Stockholm Options and Forward Exchange, OM Stockholm. It is characterized by some interesting market microstructure features, such as a high degree of transparency in a fully computerized trading system and a possibility to submit combination orders. We also present empirically results from tests on the intra- and interday trading volume of the OMX index derivatives, both in terms of number of contracts traded and in terms of number of transactions. There is evidence of a high degree of intraday variation in trading volume and some interday variation. The extension of trading hours of the underlying stocks, during the studied period should, according to modern trade concentration models, affect the distribution of trading across the day. Although no formal test of the models is possible with this data set, we are able to shed some supportive additional light on all of these models. Essay 3: Tick Size, Market Liquidity and Trading Volume: Evidence from the Stockholm Stock Exchange. (This essay was co-authored with Patrik Sandås.)The regulated tick size at a securities exchange puts a lower bound on the bid/ask spread. We use cross-sectional and cross-daily data from the Stockholm Stock Exchange to assess if this lower bound is economically important and if it has any direct effect on market depth and traded volume. We find a) strong support that the tick size is positively correlated to market depth and c) some support that it is negatively related to traded volume. We identify different groups of agents to whom a lower tick size would be beneficial and to whom it would be detrimental. Essay 4: An Analysis of the Lead-Lag Relationship between the OMX Index Forwards and the OMX Cash Index.This essay investigates the intraday lead-lag structure in returns between on the one hand the OMX cash index and on the other hand the OMX index forwards and the OMX synthetic index forwards in Sweden. The data set includes 22 months of data, from December 1991, to September 1993. It is divided into three sub-periods. The main conclusion is that there is a high degree of bidirectional interdependence, with both series Granger causing each other. Using a Sims-test, we find that the forwards as well as synthetic forwards lead the cash index with between fifteen and thirty minutes, while the cash index leads the forwards with about ten to fifteen minutes.. This implies a longer lead from the cash index to the forwards than in previous studies. The large interdependence could possibly be due to higher transaction costs, lower liquidity in the forward market and the specific trading environments used for Swedish securities. Essay 5: Order Flow Dynamics: Evidence from the Helsinki Stock Exchange. (This essay was co-authored with Kaj Hedvall.)This essay investigates the dynamics of the order flow in a limit order book. In contrast to previous studies, our data set from the Helsinki Stock Exchange encompasses the entire order book structure, including the dealer identities. This enables us to focus on the order behavior of individual dealers. We classify the events in the order book and study the structure of subsequent events using contingency tables. In specific, the structure of subsequent events initiated by the same dealer is compared to the overall event structure. We find that order splitting is more frequent than order imitation. Furthermore, if the spread increases as a result of a trade, other dealers quickly restore the spread, by submitting new limit orders. One conclusion is therefore that there exists a body of potential limit orders outside the formal limit order book and that there is a high degree of resiliency in our limit order book market. As a logical consequence, a large dealer strategically splits his order, in order for the market to supply additional liquidity. One interpretation of our results is that a limit order book market can accommodate larger orders than is first apparent by the outstanding limit orders. Another interpretation is that a limit order book structure gives room for informed traders to successively trade on their information. A third interpretation is that prices only slowly incorporate new information. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1994

In dieser Dissertation befassen wir uns mit ökonometrischen Modellen und empirischen Eigenschaften von Intra-Tages (Hochfrequenz-) Aktienmarktdaten. Der Fokus liegt hierbei auf der Analyse des Einflusses, den die Veröffentlichung von Wirtschaftsnachrichten auf die Aktienmarktaktivität hat, der Vorhersage der Geld-Brief-Spanne sowie der Modellierung von Volatilitätsmaßen auf Intra-Tages-Zeitintervallen. Zunächst quantifizieren wir die Marktreaktionen auf Marktneuigkeiten innerhalb eines Handelstages. Zu diesem Zweck benutzen wir linguistisch vorab bearbeitete Unternehmensnachrichtendaten mit Indikatoren über die Relevanz, Neuheit und Richtung dieser Nachrichten. Mit einem VAR Modell für 20-Sekunden Marktdaten der London Stock Exchange weisen wir durch Nachrichten hervorgerufene Marktreaktionen in Aktienkursrenditen, Volatilität, Handelsvolumina und Geld-Brief-Spannen nach. In einer zweiten Analyse führen wir ein long memory autoregressive conditional Poisson (LMACP)-Modell zur Modellierung hoch-persistenter diskreter positivwertiger Zeitreihen ein. Das Modell verwenden wir zur Prognose von Geld-Brief-Spannen, einem zentralen Parameter im Aktienhandel. Wir diskutieren theoretische Eigenschaften des LMACP-Modells und evaluieren rollierende Prognosen von Geld-Brief-Spannen an den NYSE und NASDAQ Börsenplätzen. Wir zeigen, dass Poisson-Zeitreihenmodelle in diesem Kontext signifikant bessere Vorhersagen liefern als ARMA-, ARFIMA-, ACD- und FIACD-Modelle. Zuletzt widmen wir uns der optimalen Messung von Volatilität auf kleinen 20 Sekunden bis 5 Minuten Zeitintervallen. Neben der Verwendung von realized volatility-Ansätzen konstruieren wir Volatilitätsmaße durch Integration von spot volatility-Schätzern, sodass auch Beobachtungen außerhalb der kleinen Zeitintervalle in die Volatilitätsschätzungen eingehen. Ein Vergleich der Ansätze in einer Simulationsstudie zeigt, dass Volatilitätsmaße basierend auf spot volatility-Schätzern den RMSE minimieren. / In this thesis we present econometric models and empirical features of intra-daily (high frequency) stock market data. We focus on the measurement of news impacts on stock market activity, forecasts of bid-ask spreads and the modeling of volatility measures on intraday intervals. First, we quantify market reactions to an intraday stock-specific news flow. Using pre-processed data from an automated news analytics tool we analyze relevance, novelty and direction signals and indicators for company-specific news. Employing a high-frequency VAR model based on 20 second data of a cross-section of stocks traded at the London Stock Exchange we find distinct responses in returns, volatility, trading volumes and bid-ask spreads due to news arrivals. In a second analysis we introduce a long memory autoregressive conditional Poisson (LMACP) model to model highly persistent time series of counts. The model is applied to forecast quoted bid-ask spreads, a key parameter in stock trading operations. We discuss theoretical properties of LMACP models and evaluate rolling window forecasts of quoted bid-ask spreads for stocks traded at NYSE and NASDAQ. We show that Poisson time series models significantly outperform forecasts from ARMA, ARFIMA, ACD and FIACD models in this context. Finally, we address the problem of measuring volatility on small 20 second to 5 minute intra-daily intervals in an optimal way. In addition to the standard realized volatility approaches we construct volatility measures by integrating spot volatility estimates that include information on observations outside of the intra-daily intervals of interest. Comparing the alternative volatility measures in a simulation study we find that spot volatility-based measures minimize the RMSE in the case of small intervals.