A key issue raised by the rapid growth of computerised algorithmic trading is how it responds in extreme situations. Using data on foreign exchange orders and transactions that includes identification of algorithmic trading, we find that this type of trading contributed to the deterioration of...

The German Bund futures contract is the most important bond futures contract in Europe. It is also unusual in that it trades on competing Exchanges - LIFFE in London and the DTB in Frankfurt. This paper looks at a surprising aspect of this dually traded contract, namely that the contract trades...

A recent study by Professor Marsh of the London Business School has estimated that sub-underwriters of rights issues (firms that commit to buy up any remaining shares at the end of a rights issue) make an excess profit of 86% of the fee they charge. Because of this study, the OFT (who originally...

The current slump in the UK housing market has coincided with record increases in mortgage arrears and possessions. Falling nominal house prices reduce the amount of unwithdrawn equity in housing and, under certain conditions, provide incentives for borrowers to accumulate arrears and for...

The Bund (10 year German Government Bond) futures contract is the most actively traded bond contract in Europe; it is traded in both London (LIFFE) and Frankfurt (DTB) on open outcry and electronic trading platforms respectively. In an attempt to reconcile the conflicting results of earlier...

Using trade repository data at transaction and ID levels, we provide the first systematic study of interest rate swaps traded over the counter in the new regulatory regime. We find substantial and persistent heterogeneity in derivatives prices consistent with a pass-through of regulatory costs...

Using supervisory data from UK central counterparties (CCPs), we study a collateral cycle in which market participants raise liquidity in the repo markets to meet CCPs margin calls, before CCPs reinvest the liquidity through reverse repos as well as bond purchases. In the first leg, we find that...