We employ data over 2005-2009 which uniquely identify categories of traders to test whether speculators like hedge funds and swap dealers cause price changes or volatility. We find little evidence that speculators destabilize financial markets. To the contrary, speculative trading activity...

For NYSE-listed IPOs, limit order submissions and depth relative to volume are unusually low on the first trading day. Initial buy-side liquidity is higher for IPOs with high quality underwriters, large syndicates, low insider sales, and high pre-market demand, while sell-side liquidity is...

We examine 1,098 Nasdaq firms delisted in 1999-2002 that subsequently traded in the OTC Bulletin Board and/or the Pink Sheets. Market quality deteriorates significantly after delisting: share volume declines by two-thirds; quoted spreads almost triple from 12.1 to 33.9 percent; and effective...

The recent financial crisis has focused attention on identifying and measuring systemic risk. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to estimate the portfolio composition of banks as function of daily interbank trades and stock returns. While banks’ assets are reported to regulators...

SOES bandits are individual investors who day-trade primarily through Nasdaq's Small Order Execution System (SOES). They attempt to predict short-term price movements of Nasdaq stocks by observing trades and changes in market maker quotes. We find that they usually hold positions for only a few...

We study the effects of alternative halt and reopening procedures on prices, transaction costs, and trading activity for a sample of news-related trading halts on Nasdaq. For intraday halts that reopen after only a five-minute quotation period, inside quoted spreads more than double following...

We test the prevalence, sources and effects of herding among large speculative traders in thirty U.S. futures markets over 2004-2009. Using unique U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data identifying daily trader positions we compare herding among hedge funds and floor market...

We study the effects of alternative halt and reopening procedures on prices, transaction costs, and trading activity for a sample of news-related trading halts on Nasdaq. For intraday halts that reopen after only a five-minute quotation period, inside quoted spreads more than double following...