Recently, the OMX Stockholm Exchange changed the OMXS 30 index futures contract specifications. Before the change, the futures contract was settled forward style, at maturity only, and was not marked-to-market on a daily basis. Following the contract redesign, the contract is subject to daily...

This study analyses the information asymmetry at the stock market considering two different types of information flow. The first type represents changes in information where informed traders know if the stock price will increase or decrease. The second type is less specific - the direction is...

What is the optimal design of an options market? From investors' as well as the option exchange's point of view it ought to be a marketplace where demand and supply for different contracts balances, and where the choice between trading in different contracts ought to be discretionary considering...

This study presents a model, which can be used to estimate the asymmetry of option values with respect to option bid-ask spreads. The model provides an extension to the model in Chan and Chung (1999), since it does not require knowledge of the actual option value to evaluate the asymmetry. Using...

We analyse the new Swedish pension system, which constitutes a partial defined contribution plan where individuals can choose from hundreds of mutual funds to invest part of their pension savings, making them bearing part of the investment risks themselves. We perform a factor analysis in order...

This study investigates economic consequences of individual investors' home bias and portfolio churning in their personal pension accounts. The empirical analysis is carried out within a Heckman style two-stage framework to account for selection bias with respect to individuals' investment...

Recently, the OMX Nordic Exchange reduced the exchange fee for trading the OMXS 30 index futures with more than 22%. The reduction in exchange fees provides this study with a unique opportunity to investigate the effects of a change in fixed transaction costs on futures market liquidity, trading...

According to Heath and Tversky (1991), people are more willing to bet on their own judgments in areas where they consider themselves more knowledgeable or competent. We analyze the competence effect in the context of individuals' choices in their own pension accounts. We find that individuals...

This paper investigates shareholder activism by observing Swedish portfolio managers' behavior at firms' annual general meetings. Institutional shareholders' voting behavior and tendencies for raising opinions at the general meetings are related to firm characteristics, suggested by both agency...

We investigate how well the actual exercise behaviour of American put options corresponds to the early exercise rules using Swedish equity option data. The numerical binomial model according to Cox et al. (1979) is used to compute a critical exercise price, above which a put option should be...