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.

<p>This project examines the events from 1866 to 1871 in Korea between the United States and Joseon, with a specific focus on the 1866 <i>General Sherman</i> Incident and the United States Expedition to Korea in 1871. The project also examines the present memory of those events in the United States and North and South Korea. This project shows that contemporary American reactions to the events in Korea from 1866 to 1871 were numerous and ambivalent in what the American role should be in Korea. In the present, American memory of 1866 to 1871 has largely been monopolized by the American military, with the greater American collective memory largely forgetting this period. </p> <p>In the Koreas, collective memory of the five-year crisis (1866 to 1871) is divided along ideological lines. In North Korea, the victories that Korea achieved against the United States are used as stories to reinforce the North Korean line on the United States, as well as reinforcing the legitimacy of the Kim family. In South Korea, the narrative focuses on the corruption of Joseon and the Daewongun and the triumph of a “modernizing” Korean state against anti-western hardliners, and is more diverse in how the narrative is told, ranging from newspapers to K-Dramas, leading to a more complicated collective memory in the South. </p> <p>This Thesis shows that understanding the impact that the first state-to-state encounters had on the American-Korean relationship not only at the time but also in the present, is key to analyzing the complicated history of the Korean-American relationship writ large.</p>