We analyze the trading activity in an Internet chat room with approximately 1,300 participants. Traders make posts in real time about their activities. We find these traders are more skilled than retail investors analyzed in other studies. 55% make profits after transaction costs, and they earn...

This paper examines how well the market anticipates regulatory sanction. We look at key dates of SEC, NASD, FTC, Congressional and foreign investigations and their subsequent resolution. Our event study confirms that the settlements provide little new information to the market. In six major case...

We find that turnover rises on n-day highs and lows and is an increasing function of n. We offer several explanations from the technical and behavioral finance literature for why traders might use these signals. Turnover is persistent following these events, and new lows provide abnormal returns...

The Nasdaq stock market provides information about buying and selling interest in what is called the Level II display. Using a bivariate VAR model of trades and quotes, I assess the effect of Level II prices and depths on short-run quote dynamics. I also determine the influence of individual...

The paper analyzes the intensity of choice in an agent based financial optimization problem. Mean-variance optimizing agents choose among mutual funds of similar styles but varying performance. We specify a model for the allocation of new funds, switching between funds, and withdrawals and...

The Enron Corporation went from a $65 billion dollar market capitalization to bankruptcy in just 16 months. Using statistical techniques for extracting the implied probability distributions built into option prices, I examine the market's expectation of Enron's risk of collapse. I find that the...

Financial markets embed expectations of central bank policy into asset prices. This paper compares two approaches that extract a probability density of market beliefs. The first is a simulated moments estimator for option volatilities described in Mizrach (2002); the second is a new approach...

I investigate the linkage between liquidity provision by Nasdaq market makers and analysts in the same firm. Using three measures of market activity, I find that Nasdaq firms are more likely to provide buy side liquidity in anticipation of upgrades in the period 1999-2000. ECN activity supports...

This paper assesses the contribution of monetary policy to the dynamics of bond real returns. We assume that the monetary authority controls the short-term nominal interest rate. We then model exogenously the joint dynamics of the aggregate endowment and the monetary policy variable, and...

There is now considerable evidence that business cycle variation in output and employment in the U.S. differs in expansions and contractions. We present nonparametric evidence that asymmetries are strongest in durable goods manufacturing. In a Markov switching framework, we find two leading...