Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:56:40.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Speculation with Information Disclosure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2023

Paolo Pasquariello*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan Ross School of Business
Yifei Wang
Affiliation:
Weiss Asset Management wangyf@umich.edu
*
ppasquar@umich.edu (corresponding author)
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Sophisticated investors frequently choose to publicly disclose private information, a phenomenon inconsistent with most theories of speculation. We propose and test a model to bridge this gap. We show that when a speculator cares about both short-term portfolio value and long-term profit, a disclosure mixing asset fundamentals and her holdings is optimal by inducing competitive dealership to revise prices toward those holdings while alleviating adverse selection. We find that when mutual fund managers have stronger short-term incentives, the frequency of strategic non-anonymous disclosures about their stocks by market-worthy newspaper articles increases and those stocks’ liquidity improves, consistent with our model.

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Footnotes

The authors are grateful to Thierry Foucault (the editor) and an anonymous referee as well as Dan Bernhardt, Sugato Bhattacharyya, Philip Bond, Alex Chinco, Stefan Eichler, Miguel Ferreira, Diego Garcia, Eitan Goldman, Itay Goldstein, Zhiguo He, Tullio Jappelli, Marcin Kacperczyk, Ron Kaniel, Aditya Kaul, Maria Marchica, Stefan Nagel, Marco Pagano, Jeff Pontiff, Uday Rajan, Zhen Shi, Steve Slezak, Denis Sosyura, Alexei Tchistyi, Charles Trzcinka, Chaojun Wang, Toni Whited, Liyan Yang, Mao Ye, and seminar participants at the University of Michigan, SFS Cavalcade, AFA meetings, University of Cincinnati, University of Naples Federico II, University of Illinois, NOVA, University of Warwick, University of Manchester, Indiana University, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, TU Dresden, Penn State University, and University of Alberta for valuable suggestions and helpful comments, as well as to Mengxi Sun for excellent research assistance. Pasquariello also thanks the Department of Economics at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia for its generous hospitality while completing parts of this project.

References

Admati, A., and Pfleiderer, P.. “Selling and Trading on Information in Financial Markets.” American Economic Review, 78 (1988), 96103.Google Scholar
Agarwal, V.; Jiang, W.; Tang, Y.; and Yang, B.. “Uncovering Hedge Fund Skill from the Portfolio Holdings They Hide.” Journal of Finance, 68 (2013), 739–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amihud, Y.Illiquidity and Stock Returns: Cross-Section and Time-Series Effects.” Journal of Financial Markets, 5 (2002), 3156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amihud, Y.; Mendelson, H.; and Lauterbach, B.. “Market Microstructure and Securities Values: Evidence from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.” Journal of Financial Economics, 45 (1997), 365390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appel, I., and Fos, V.. “Short Campaigns by Hedge Funds.” Working Paper, University of Virginia (2022).Google Scholar
Back, K., and Zender, J.. “Auctions of Divisible Goods: On the Rationale for the Treasury Experiment.” Review of Financial Studies, 6 (1993), 733764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, M., and Wurgler, J.. “Investor Sentiment and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns.” Journal of Finance, 61 (2006), 16451680.10.1111/j.1540-6261.2006.00885.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banerjee, S.; Kim, T.; and Mangla, V.. “Conceal to Coordinate.” Working Paper, Rady School of Management (2018).Google Scholar
Becht, M.; Franks, J.; Grant, J.; and Wagner, H. F.. “Returns to Hedge Fund Activism: An International Study.” Review of Financial Studies, 30 (2017), 29332971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benabou, R., and Laroque, G.. “Using Privileged Information to Manipulate Markets: Insiders, Gurus, and Credibility.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107 (1992), 921958.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhardt, D.; Davies, R. J.; and Spicer, J.. “Long-Term Information, Short-Lived Securities.” Journal of Futures Markets, 26 (2006), 466502.10.1002/fut.20204CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bharath, S. T.; Pasquariello, P.; and Wu, G.. “Does Asymmetric Information Drive Capital Structure Decisions?Review of Financial Studies, 22 (2009), 32113243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhattacharyya, S., and Nanda, V.. “Portfolio Pumping, Trading Activity and Fund Performance.” Review of Finance, 17 (2013), 885919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brav, A.; Jiang, W.; Partnoy, F.; and Thomas, R.. “Hedge Fund Activism, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance.” Journal of Finance, 63 (2008), 17291775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, K.; Van Harlow, W.; and Starks, L.. “Of Tournaments and Temptations: An Analysis of Managerial Incentives in the Mutual Fund Industry.” Journal of Finance, 51 (1996), 85110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carhart, M.; Kaniel, R.; Musto, D.; and Reed, A.. “Leaning for the Tape: Evidence of Gaming Behavior in Equity Mutual Funds.” Journal of Finance, 57 (2002), 661693.10.1111/1540-6261.00438CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Joseph, Hughson, Eric, and Stoughton, Neal. “Strategic Mutual Fund Tournaments.” Working Paper, University of California, Davis (2018).Google Scholar
Chevalier, J. A., and Ellison, G. D.. “Risk Taking by Mutual Funds as a Response to Incentives.” Journal of Political Economy, 105 (1997), 1167–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chevalier, J. A., and Ellison, G. D.. “Career Concerns of Mutual Fund Managers.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114 (1999), 389432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chordia, T.; Roll, R.; and Subrahmanyam, A.. “Commonality in Liquidity.” Journal of Financial Economics, 56 (2000), 328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, S. K.; Groth, J. C.; and Avera, W. E.. “Liquidity, Exchange Listing, and Common Stock Performance.” Journal of Economics and Business, 37 (1985), 1933.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, S. S.; Gray, W. R.; and Kern, A. E.. “Why Do Fund Managers Identify and Share Profitable Ideas?Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 52 (2017), 19031926.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, V., and Sobel, J.. “Strategic Information Transmission.” Econometrica, 50 (1982), 14311451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cremers, M., and Pareek, A.. “Short-Term Trading and Stock Return Anomalies: Momentum, Reversal, and Share Issuance.” Review of Finance, 19 (2014), 16491701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Long, J. B.; Shleifer, A.; Summers, L. H.; and Waldmann, R. J.. “Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets.” Journal of Political Economy, 98 (1990), 703738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Del Guercio, D., and Tkac, P.. “The Determinants of the Flow of Funds of Managed Portfolios: Mutual Funds vs. Pension Funds.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 37 (2002), 523557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dow, J., and Gorton, G.. “Arbitrage Chains.” Journal of Finance, 49 (1994), 819849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duong, T. X., and Meschke, F.. “The Rise and Fall of Portfolio Pumping Among U.S. Mutual Funds.” Journal of Corporate Finance, 60 (2020), 101530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elton, E., and Gruber, M.. “Mutual Funds.” In Financial Markets and Asset Pricing: Handbook of Economics and Finance, Constantinides, G. M., Harris, M., and Stultz, R. M., eds. North-Holland: Elsevier (2013), 10111061.Google Scholar
Epstein, L., and Zin, S.. “Substitution, Risk Aversion, and the Temporal Behavior of Consumption and Asset Returns: A Theoretical Framework.” Econometrica, 57 (1989), 937969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, T.; Pagano, M.; and Röell, A., Market Liquidity: Theory, Evidence, and Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, D. R.; Gardner, P.; and Swan, P. L.. “Portfolio Pumping: An Examination of Investment Manager Quarter-End Trading and Impact on Performance.” Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 17 (2009), 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaspar, J.-M.; Massa, M.; and Matos, P.. “Shareholder Investment Horizons and the Market for Corporate Control.” Journal of Financial Economics, 76 (2005), 135165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentzkow, M., and Shapiro, J. M.. “Media Bias and Reputation.” Journal of Political Economy, 114 (2006), 280316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glode, V.; Opp, C. C.; and Zhang, X.. “Voluntary Disclosure in Bilateral Transactions.” Journal of Economic Theory, 175 (2018), 652688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, E., and Slezak, S. L.. “Delegated Portfolio Management and Rational Prolonged Mispricing.” Journal of Finance, 58 (2003), 283311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, I.; Xiong, Y.; and Yang, L.. “Information Sharing in Financial Markets.” Working Paper, University of Pennsylvania (2021).Google Scholar
Goldstein, I., and Yang, L.. “Good Disclosure, Bad Disclosure.” Journal of Financial Economics, 131 (2019), 118138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gormley, T. A.; Kaplan, Z.; and Verma, A.. “More Informative Disclosures, Less Informative Prices? Portfolio and Price Formation around Quarter-Ends.” Journal of Financial Economics, 146 (2022), 665688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gormley, T. A., and Matsa, D. A.. “Common Errors: How to (and Not to) Control for Unobserved Heterogeneity.” Review of Financial Studies, 27 (2014), 617661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goto, S.; Watanabe, M.; and Xu, Y.. “Strategic Disclosure and Stock Returns: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Cross-Listing.” Review of Financial Studies, 22 (2009), 15851620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, T. C.Economic News and the Impact of Trading on Bond Prices.” Journal of Finance, 59 (2004), 12011233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwood, R., and Schor, M.. “Investor Activism and Takeovers.” Journal of Financial Economics, 92 (2009), 362375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossman, S., and Stiglitz, J.. “On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets.” American Economic Review, 70 (1980), 393408.Google Scholar
Hamilton, J. D. Time Series Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, B., and Yang, L.. “Social Networks, Information Acquisition, and Asset Prices.” Management Science, 59 (2013), 14441457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasbrouck, J.Trading Costs and Returns for U.S. Equities: Estimating Effective Costs from Daily Data.” Journal of Finance, 64 (2009), 14451477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertzberg, A.A Theory of Disclosure in Speculative Markets.” Management Science, 64 (2017), 57875806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hu, G.; McLean, R. D.; Pontiff, J.; and Wang, Q.. “The Year-End Trading Activities of Institutional Investors: Evidence from Daily Trades.” Review of Financial Studies, 27 (2014), 15931614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, J.; Sialm, C.; and Zhang, H.. “Risk Shifting and Mutual Fund Performance.” Review of Financial Studies, 24 (2011), 25752616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ippolito, R. A.Consumer Reaction to Measures of Poor Quality: Evidence from the Mutual Fund Industry.” Journal of Law and Economics, 35 (1992), 4570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kacperczyk, M.; Sialm, C.; and Zheng, L.. “Unobserved Actions of Mutual Funds.” Review of Financial Studies, 21 (2008), 23792416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahraman, B.Publicizing Arbitrage.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 56 (2021), 789820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamenica, E., and Gentzkow, M.. “Bayesian Persuasion.” American Economic Review, 101 (2011), 25902615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, O., and Verrecchia, R. E.. “Market Liquidity and Volume Around Earnings Announcements.” Journal of Accounting and Economics, 17 (1994), 4167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, O., and Verrecchia, R. E.. “Pre-Announcement and Event-Period Private Information.” Journal of Accounting and Economics, 24 (1997), 395419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korajczyk, R. A., and Sadka, R.. “Pricing the Commonality Across Alternative Measures of Liquidity.” Journal of Financial Economics, 87 (2008), 4572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovbasyuk, S., and Pagano, M.. “Advertising Arbitrage.” Review of Finance, 26 (2022), 799827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurlat, P., and Veldkamp, L.. “Should We Regulate Financial Information?Journal of Economic Theory, 158 (2015), 697720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyle, A.Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading.” Econometrica, 53 (1985), 13151335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakonishok, J.; Shleifer, A.; Thaler, R.; and Vishny, R.. “Window Dressing by Pension Fund Managers.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 81 (1991), 227231.Google Scholar
Lettau, M., and Madhavan, A.. “Exchange-Traded Funds 101 for Economists.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32 (2018), 135154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Y. “Why Do Large Investors Disclose Their Information?” Working Paper, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ljungqvist, A., and Qian, W.. “How Constraining Are Limits to Arbitrage?Review of Financial Studies, 29 (2016), 19752028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musto, D.Investment Decisions Depend on Portfolio Disclosures.” Journal of Finance, 54 (1999), 935952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasquariello, P. “Market Frictions in Domestic and International Financial Markets.” Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Stern School of Business, New York University (2003).Google Scholar
Pasquariello, P.Agency Costs and Strategic Speculation in the U.S. Stock Market.” Review of Corporate Finance Studies, forthcoming (2023).Google Scholar
Pasquariello, P., and Vega, C.. “Informed and Strategic Order Flow in the Bond Markets.” Review of Financial Studies, 20 (2007), 19752019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasquariello, P., and Vega, C.. “The On-the-Run Liquidity Phenomenon.” Journal of Financial Economics, 92 (2009), 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, M. A.Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches.” Review of Financial Studies, 22 (2009), 435480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, D.Stock Market Rumors and Credibility.” Review of Financial Studies, 33 (2020), 38043853.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarz, C. G., and Potter, M. E.. “Revisiting Mutual Fund Portfolio Disclosure.” Review of Financial Studies, 29 (2016), 35193544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SEC. “SEC Charges Minneapolis-Based Hedge Fund Manager with Bilking Investors and Portfolio Pumping.” (2014) Available at https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2014-187 Accessed on March 21, 2023.Google Scholar
SEC. “Exchange-Traded Funds, Final Rule 6c-11.” (2019) Available at https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2019/33-10695.pdf Accessed on March 21, 2023.Google Scholar
Shi, Z.The Impact of Portfolio Disclosure on Hedge Fund Performance.” Journal of Financial Economics, 126 (2017), 3653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, H. S.Disclosures and Asset Returns.” Econometrica, 71 (2003), 105133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shleifer, A., and Vishny, R.. “The Limits of Arbitrage.” Journal of Finance, 52 (1997), 3555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirri, E., and Tufano, P.. “Costly Search and Mutual Fund Flows.” Journal of Finance, 53 (1998), 15891622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Bommel, J.Rumors.” Journal of Finance, 58 (2003), 14991520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vives, X. Information and Learning in Markets. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, J. B., and Wu, J. S.. “Why Do Mutual Fund Advisory Contracts Change? Performance, Growth, and Spillover Effects.” Journal of Finance, 66 (2011), 271306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wermers, R.Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock-Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses.” Journal of Finance, 55 (2000), 16551703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Pasquariello and Wang supplementary material

Internet Appendix

Download Pasquariello and Wang supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 424.2 KB