Previous empirical studies show that returns on gold mining equities are positive and statistically significantly related to changes in the price of gold. However, these studies fail to examine operational factors that may provide further explanatory power to gold mining equity returns. Examining quarterly gold mining equity returns, All-In Sustaining Cost and gold production results between 2013 and 2018, I find that there exists a positive and statistically significant relationship between changes in gold mining equity returns and the price of gold and a negative and statistically significant relationship between lagged changes in All-In Sustaining Cost and gold mining equity returns. My findings suggest that investors must be cognizant of cost metrics when seeking gold exposure through gold mining equities.

This paper examines the lockup expiration date event for technology firms post Global Financial Crisis to investigate the existence of abnormal returns around this date and determine the explanatory power that insider trading and the increase in available shares have on the abnormal return. Contributions to literature include using an updated sampling, targeting the technology industry, and constructing unique variables such as the dollar value of insider trades around the lockup expiration date. There exists statistically significant three-day cumulative abnormal returns of -1.33%. Firms with higher percentages of insiders who sell their positions tend to experience a further decrease in cumulative abnormal returns (CAR). The supply effect of these shares being opened to the market is not significant at the 95% confidence level. Thus, insider trading rather than increased supply accounts for variations in the abnormal returns across technology firms.

The first chapter studies mutual funds. I model intraquarter trading and use a genetic algorithm to estimate the trade pattern that is most consistent with the fund's daily reported returns. I validate the model empirically on a sample of institutional trades from Ancerno and I confirm that the method more accurately predicts daily holdings when compared to existing naive assumptions. Further, my method is substantially more accurate in classifying a fund's tendency to supply liquidity, and this increased precision has important implications for identifying superior performing funds. Specifically, a long-short strategy based on the model's liquidity provision measures earns significant abnormal returns, while a similar strategy that relies on quarterly holdings does not exhibit any outperformance. The second chapter studies investment research. We find evidence that crowdsourced investment research facilitates informed trading by retail investors and improves firm liquidity. Specifically, retail order imbalances are strongly correlated with the sentiment of Seeking Alpha articles, and the ability of retail order imbalances to predict returns is roughly twice as large on research article days. In addition, firms with exogenous reductions in Seeking Alpha coverage experience increases in bid-ask spreads and price impact, with the effect being stronger for firms with high retail ownership. Our findings suggest that technological innovations have helped democratize access to investment research with important implications for firm liquidity.

The higher the level of information asymmetry between a firm and its investors, the higher is the firm’s reluctance to raise money externally, potentially leading to investment distortions. An improved disclosure system reduces information asymmetry and therefore, lessens the adverse selection effects of external financing, thereby moderating investment inefficiencies. In this paper, we examine the impact of potentially improved transparency stemming from stricter disclosure requirements (Clause 49) on financing and investment decisions of Indian firms. The results show that reliance of Indian firms on internal financing in the pre-reform period gives way to greater use of external financing in the post-reform period, and alleviation in financial constraints. While expanded funding sources do not seem to improve investment unambiguously, firms that suffered under-investment prior to the reform show a significant improvement in investment post-reform. Firms also increase their financial slack making it possible for them to engage in acquisitions within India as well as abroad.

Traditional asset pricing models such as Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) have been used widely in academics and practice due to their simplicity and popularity. The CAPM is a prescriptive model that describes the relationship between a stock’s required return and risk relative to the movements in the market, while the DCF is a descriptive model that measures the realized rate of return on a stock based on the market price of the stock, which in turn incorporates investor perceptions about the stock and the market. In an ideal, efficient market where investors behave rationally, we should not see much of a difference between stock returns estimated from these two models. However, because investor perceptions affect the DCF estimate of returns, changes in investor confidence without accompanying changes in firm risk can affect the DCF estimate without changing the CAPM estimate. High growth firm returns are more likely to incorporate changes in investor perception because more of their value is generated from realization of future growth opportunities. In this research, I study whether investor sentiment affects the DCF estimate of stock return more than the CAPM estimate, and whether this impact is more pronounced for high growth firms. I find results consistent with this hypothesis. I find that investor sentiment causes a divergence between the CAPM and DCF estimates of stock returns, and this divergence is higher for high growth firms compared to low growth firms. My findings suggest that high growth firm stock prices are more prone to distortions due to hype or investor pessimism.

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of state ownership in Saudi firms listed in the stock market. The first chapter studies the influence of state ownership on financial constraint on investment. Some scholars believe state ownership has a negative effect on the firm value. However, by using two measures of financial constraint, the investment cash flow sensitivity and the Kaplan and Zingales financial constraints index, the finding indicates that the existent of government ownership decreases financial constraint in firms. Also, the results show that the higher government ownership percentage the less financial constraint in firms. The second chapter studies the influence of specific company factors and the government ownership factor on capital structure. The finding shows that tangibility of assets and size have a positive association with leverage. Leverage is negatively correlated with growth and profitably. Finally, the results suggest that government ownership affects the level of leverage negatively.

Academic research has shown throughout the years the ability of technical indicators to convey predictive value, informational content, and practical use. The popularity of such studies goes in and out over the years and today is being recognized widely by behavioral economists. Automated technical analysis is said to detect geometric and nonlinear shapes in prices which ordinary time series methods would be unable to detect. Previous papers use smoothing estimators to detect such patterns. Our paper uses local polynomial regressions, digital image processing, and state of the art machine learning tools to detect the patterns. Our results show that they are nonrandom, convey informational value, and have some predictive ability. We validate our results with prior works using stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average for a sample period from 1925-2019 using daily price observations.

Cyclical Economic Impacts on Aggregated Fiscal Imbalance Levels in the United States by Douglas A. Merriman MSM, University of Maryland University College, 2004 BS, Central Washington University, 1983 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Applied Management and Decision Science Walden University July 2015 The impacts of cyclical economic volatility on state-level fiscal imbalance levels have gained attention, given that beginning in late 2007, the United States experienced the deepest and longest-lasting recession in its history. The problem addressed by this study was whether there was a statistically significant relationship between certain economic factors and fluctuations in state-level fiscal imbalance levels in the U.S. during the period 2000 to 2010. The purpose of this study was to evaluate relationships between certain economic factors and state-level fiscal imbalance levels in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, and to assess how the presence and relational strength of these relationships varied during an economic cycle. Musgrave's theory of public economy, Oates's fiscal federalism theory, and Buchanan's fiscal imbalance theory served as the theoretical foundation. This longitudinal, time-series-cross-sectional study used multiple linear regressions to assess the relationships between the federal agency-provided datasets of unemployment, age, per capita income, poverty, entrepreneurial activity, gross state product, and the levels of fiscal imbalances in the 48 contiguous U.S. states during the period of 2000 to 2010. The study results provided evidence that the set of independent variables explained a significant amount of the overall fluctuation in fiscal imbalance levels from 2000 to 2010, and that the independent variables of unemployment rate, percent of population under the federal poverty level, and gross state product were related to fiscal imbalance levels with varying degrees of statistical significance and strength from one year to the next. The implication of the study for social change is that policy makers who understand these relationships may construct better policies to mitigate fiscal imbalance volatility and to encourage state-level fiscal equivalence across the United States.

In 2010, regulators established new rules for single-family mortgage services that tightened the loan amount consumers could qualify for, restricted fees lenders could charge, and placed numerous financial penalties for improper servicing of loans. Regulatory fee restrictions made it difficult for leaders to offset the compliance costs through the price of services provided. Leaders responsible for mortgage regulatory compliance experienced increased operating costs for single-family mortgage services due to the new regulations, and some leaders found it challenging to comply and remain competitive. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies leaders in the single-family mortgage services industry used to comply with federal regulations and remain competitive. The study population included 5 leaders responsible for single-family mortgage regulatory compliance from the southwestern and northern regions of the United States Porter's 5 forces analysis was the conceptual framework. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analysis of data from a website hosted by government regulators. Data were analyzed using color-coded transcriptions, methodological triangulation, member checking, and coding software. Themes that emerged from data analysis revealed that costs and control methods for regulatory compliance strategies required leaders to change their infrastructure to remain competitive and profitable. The implication of this study for positive social change relates to competitive pricing for single-family mortgage loans for consumers yielding an increase in home ownership.

Each year entrepreneurs start many new businesses, and some of these businesses will fail within the first 2 years. In addition, many owners will cite lack of adequate financial resources as a contributory factor to the failure. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify the strategies that some small business owners used to obtain financial resources needed to operate a financially sustainable business. The population consisted of machine shops in South Central Kansas. A resource-based view theory served as the conceptual framework that grounded the study. The data collection process consisted of 9 interview questions. The data analysis process entailed using coding techniques to identify keywords, phrases, and concepts. Member checking ensured the credibility and trustworthiness of the data interpretation and analysis. The process led to the following 4 themes: (a) the role of access to financial resources in business success, (b) strategies used when external funding is not available or desirable, (c) strategies used to obtain external financing, and (d) challenges faced in obtaining external financing. The implications for positive social change include the potential to provide new insights to support existing and prospective entrepreneurs in their efforts to obtain financial resources needed to operate a financially sustainable business. The findings from the study may contribute to the prosperity and benefit of the owners, their employees, the local community, and the U.S. economy.