Following the model developed by Easley, Kiefer, O¡¦Hara and Paperman (1996), I estimated the probability of informed trading (PI) in the TSEC. The result in my study is that the probability of informed trading is highly related with the trading volume of each stock. More active stocks will have lower probability of informed trading, so investors trading with active stocks will face less information asymmetry. Feather more, my research followed the study of Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O¡¦Hara (2002), who used the Fama-French asset pricing model(1992) discussing the relationship among stock return, portfolioed market risk, size and BE/ME ratio. The result in my study is that the stock return in TSEC is affected by portfolioed market risk and size, but PI and BE/ME ratio have no effect to stock return. The result is different from the study of Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O¡¦Hara (2002). The reason could be that most investors in TSEC are individuals who lack the awareness about information asymmetry.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the information content in a trading, confirm the relationship between information-trading probability (PIN) and asset returns, and apply PIN to construct an investing strategy on a point of uninformed trader¡¦s view. I develop a decision marking model about trading decision between under order-driven market which is combined on the decision tree of the concept of D. Easley et al. (1997) and Merton (1976) jump diffusion model for modifying the PIN model to apply to order-driven market. As a result, the daily PIN were positive relatively with return, and the investing strategy which was based my model could make profit significantly in the sample period at TWSE in 2003, this investing strategy can earn profit in down and up market condition both. This result supports that hedging against information asymmetric risk is potential.

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O objetivo principal deste trabalho é analisar o efeito da assimetria da informação no custo de capital próprio das empresas negociadas em bolsa de valores no Brasil. O tema está em constante debate sobre a existência dessa relação e até mesmo sobre sua relação com o custo de capital ser favorável ou não. A assimetria da informação foi estimada através da Probability of informed trading (PIN), mensurando de forma direta a existência de negociações com informação privilegiada para a confrontação com custo de capital das empresas brasileiras. O resultado encontrado não apresentou relação estatisticamente significante a 5% entre a PIN e o custo de capital, de forma que não foi possível verificar a relação entre assimetria da informação e o custo de capital. Adicionalmente, o coeficiente encontrado para a PIN no modelo adotado indica uma possível correlação negativa da variável estudada e o custo de capital, deste modo o estudo corrobora com a conclusão de Lambert et al. (2012), segundo a qual, em mercados líquidos, a assimetria da informação não exerce papel relevante e sim a quantidade e a qualidade da informação disponível, não importando a forma de entrada da informação no mercado. / The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the effect of information asymmetry on the cost of equity of companies traded in stock exchanges in Brazil. It is constantly debated whether this relationship exists and also whether information asymmetry\'s effect on the cost of equity is favorable or not. Information asymmetry has been estimated using the PIN (Probability of Informed Trading), directly measuring the existence of insider trading for confrontation with the cost of equity of Brazilian companies. The result obtained did not show a statistically significant relationship at the 5% level between the PIN and the cost of equity; therefore, it was not possible to ascertain the relationship between information asymmetry and cost of equity. Additionally, the coefficient found for the PIN on the selected model indicates a possible negative correlation between the studied variable and the cost of equity, which indicates that the study corroborates the conclusion of Lambert et al. (2012), according to which information asymmetry does not exert a significant role in liquid markets but rather this role is exerted by the quantity and quality of available information, regardless of how information reaches the market.

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é analisar o efeito da assimetria da informação no custo de capital próprio das empresas negociadas em bolsa de valores no Brasil. O tema está em constante debate sobre a existência dessa relação e até mesmo sobre sua relação com o custo de capital ser favorável ou não. A assimetria da informação foi estimada através da Probability of informed trading (PIN), mensurando de forma direta a existência de negociações com informação privilegiada para a confrontação com custo de capital das empresas brasileiras. O resultado encontrado não apresentou relação estatisticamente significante a 5% entre a PIN e o custo de capital, de forma que não foi possível verificar a relação entre assimetria da informação e o custo de capital. Adicionalmente, o coeficiente encontrado para a PIN no modelo adotado indica uma possível correlação negativa da variável estudada e o custo de capital, deste modo o estudo corrobora com a conclusão de Lambert et al. (2012), segundo a qual, em mercados líquidos, a assimetria da informação não exerce papel relevante e sim a quantidade e a qualidade da informação disponível, não importando a forma de entrada da informação no mercado. / The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the effect of information asymmetry on the cost of equity of companies traded in stock exchanges in Brazil. It is constantly debated whether this relationship exists and also whether information asymmetry\'s effect on the cost of equity is favorable or not. Information asymmetry has been estimated using the PIN (Probability of Informed Trading), directly measuring the existence of insider trading for confrontation with the cost of equity of Brazilian companies. The result obtained did not show a statistically significant relationship at the 5% level between the PIN and the cost of equity; therefore, it was not possible to ascertain the relationship between information asymmetry and cost of equity. Additionally, the coefficient found for the PIN on the selected model indicates a possible negative correlation between the studied variable and the cost of equity, which indicates that the study corroborates the conclusion of Lambert et al. (2012), according to which information asymmetry does not exert a significant role in liquid markets but rather this role is exerted by the quantity and quality of available information, regardless of how information reaches the market.

Financial markets perform two major functions. The first is the provision of liquidity in order to facilitate direct investment, hedging and diversification; the second is to ensure the efficient price discovery required in order to direct resources to where they can be best utilised within an economy. How well financial markets perform these functions is critical to the financial welfare of every individual in modern economies. As an example, retirement savings across the world are mostly invested in capital markets. Hence, the functioning of financial markets is linked to the standard of living of individuals. Technological advancements and new market regulations have in recent times significantly impacted how financial markets function, with no period in history having witnessed a more rapid pace of change than the last decade. Financial markets have become very complex, with most of the order execution now done by computer algorithms. New high-tech trading venues, such as dark pools, also now play outsized roles in financial markets. A lot of the impacts of these developments are poorly understood. In the EU particularly, the introduction of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and advancements in technology have combined to unleash a dramatic transformation of European capital markets. In order to better understand the role of high-tech trading venues in the modern financial markets' trading environment generally and in the UK in particular, I conduct three studies investigating questions linked to the three major developments in financial markets over the past decade; these are algorithmic/high-frequency trading, market fragmentation and dark trading. In the first study, I examine the changing relationship between the price impact of block trades and informed trading, by considering this phenomenon within a high-frequency trading environment on intraday and inter-day bases. I find that the price impact of block trades is stronger during the first hour of trading; this is consistent with the hypothesis that information accumulates overnight during non-trading hours. Furthermore, private information is gradually incorporated into prices despite heightened trading frequency. Evidence suggests that informed traders exploit superior information across trading days, and stocks with lower transparency exhibit stronger information diffusion effects when traded in blocks, thus informed block trading facilitates price discovery. The second study exploits the regulatory differences between the US and the EU to examine the impact of market fragmentation on dimensions of market quality. Unlike the US's Regulation National Market System, the EU's MiFID does not impose a formal exchange trading linkage or guarantee a best execution price. This has raised concerns about consolidated market quality in increasingly fragmented European markets. The second study therefore investigates the impact of visible trading fragmentation on the quality of the London equity market and find a quadratic relationship between fragmentation and adverse selection costs. At low levels of fragmentation, order flow competition reduces adverse selection costs, improves market transparency and enhances market efficiency by reducing arbitrage opportunities. However, high levels of fragmentation increase adverse selection costs. The final study compares the impact of lit and dark venues' liquidity on market liquidity. I find that compared with lit venues, dark venues proportionally contribute more liquidity to the aggregate market. This is because dark pools facilitate trades that otherwise might not easily have occurred in lit venues when the spread widens and the limit order queue builds up. I also find that informed and algorithmic trading hinder liquidity creation in lit and dark venues, while evidence also suggests that stocks exhibiting low levels of informed trading across the aggregate market drive dark venues' liquidity contribution.