This paper analyzes informed trading in acquiring firms through (stock) merger announcements. We show that pre …-announcement abnormal option volumes in acquiring firms strongly increase ahead of a stock merger (by approximately 300%). Furthermore, we … abnormal put than call option trading before stock merger announcements. Overall, our results support the view that top …

This paper analyzes informed trading in acquiring firms through (stock) merger announcements. We show that pre …-announcement abnormal option volumes in acquiring firms strongly increase ahead of a stock merger (by approximately 300%). Furthermore, we … abnormal put option trading before stock merger announcements. Overall, our results support the view that top executives have a …

We find that the acquirer’s (1) abnormal returns at merger and acquisition (M&A) announcements and (2) long … insider net purchase ratios receive higher takeover premiums. Overall, our findings suggest that, even under the “Short Swing …

We evaluate the over-valuation hypothesis and merger arbitrage price pressure hypothesis as potential explanations for … the observed negative returns to stock acquirers around merger announcement. Using daily shorting flow data, we show that … the majority of the negative announcement returns can be attributed to price pressure induced by merger arbitrage short …

estimate a multivariate GARCH model to isolate the effects of co-movements of volatility between the acquirer and the target …