Informed Trading Behavior of Institutions and Individuals Around Earnings Announcements


Book Description

This study constructs the institutional- and individual-based probability of informed trading (PIN) by adjusting Easley, Hvidkjaer and O'Hara (2002) and investigates the impact of the informed trading behaviors of institutions and individuals on the post-announcement drift around the earnings announcement. The differences between this study and the previous literatures lie in that the investor types of informed traders are distinguished as institutions and individuals. Besides, the trading date effect is considered to examine the informed trading behaviors. The findings show that the informed trading behaviors of institutions and individuals can be distinguished. If there are informed traders involves in the stocks, the cumulative abnormal returns after the earnings announcement may be higher than the other stocks with no informed traders. Some individuals may possess relevant information that may prompt them to trade prior to or after the earnings announcement. The findings of the study may contribute to the government regulations and portfolio selections.




Individual and Institutional Informed Trading in Competing Firms Around Earnings Announcements


Book Description

This study investigates individual and institutional trading activities in competing firms to infer informed trading. We find evidence for individual and institutional informed trading in competing firms around earnings announcements. The evidence is stronger prior to announcements than after announcements. Magnitude of institutional (individual) net order flow coefficient decreases (increases) with lag length, suggesting that institutional trading captures information faster than individual trading. Individual net order flow transmit information cross-stock when competitor is a small firm while institutional net order flow conveys information cross-stock irrespective of firm size. Our results will be informative for regulators with regard to insider trading laws and provide insights for market participants on the impact of individual and institutional trading on cross-stock price discovery process.







Informed Trading Before Positive Vs. Negative Earnings Surprises


Book Description

This paper investigates whether institutional investors trade profitably around earnings announcements. We argue that institutions have informational advantage before negative earnings surprises but not before positive earnings surprises since the positive news tend to leak to market before the event. Using unique Korean data over the period of 2001-2010, we find that trading volume decreases only before the negative event due to information asymmetry among investors. We also find that institutions sell the stock before the negative earnings surprises but individual investors do not anticipate the bad news, and that trade imbalance by the institutions is positively related to the announcement abnormal returns of the negative events. The evidence is consistent with our conjecture that the domestic institutions exploit their superior information around the negative earnings surprises. Our results also show that foreign investors do not have any informational advantage compared to local investors on the upcoming earnings news.




Informed Trading Before Positive Vs. Negative Earnings Surprises


Book Description

This paper investigates whether institutional investors trade profitably around the announcements of positive or negative earnings surprises. Using Korean data over the period of 2001-2010, we find that information asymmetry is larger before negative earnings surprises (earnings shock) among investors and that the trading volume decreases only before earnings shock announcements due to the severe information asymmetry. We also find that institutions sell their stocks prior to earnings shock announcements whereas individual and foreign investors do not anticipate bad news. Finally, we find that institutional trade imbalance is positively related to the post-announcement abnormal returns of negative events. This study complements and extends prior literature on informed trading around earnings announcements by documenting evidence that domestic institutions exploit their superior information around particularly earnings shock announcements.




Institutional Stakeholdings and Better-Informed Traders at Earnings Announcements


Book Description

Utama and Cready (1997) use total institutional ownership to proxy for the proportion of better-informed traders, an important determinant of trading around earnings announcements. We argue that institutions holding small stakes cannot justify the fixed cost of developing private predisclosure information. Also, institutions with large stakes generally do not trade around earnings announcements since they are dedicated investors or face regulations that make informed trading difficult. However, institutions holding medium stakes have incentives to develop private predisclosure information and trade on it; we show that their ownership is a finer proxy for the proportion of better-informed traders at earnings announcements.




Evidence of Informed Trading Prior to Earnings Announcements


Book Description

This study examines transactions in stocks during the thirty trading days prior to earnings announcements. Using two methodologies, we find evidence of informed trading for initiators of large transactions (presumably institutions) but not for initiators of small transactions (presumably individuals). Specifically, we find that, relative to a control period, initiators of large transactions tend to buy (sell) stocks prior to earnings announcements that exceed (fall short of) analyst forecasts. In addition, the fraction of total stock price movement that occurs on large transactions is substantially higher during the pre-announcement period than during the control period. Results of both tests suggest, contrary to previous research, that some large traders have and use superior private information prior to large earnings surprises.




Who Trades During Earnings Announcements? Evidence from Torq Data


Book Description

Using TORQ database we investigate the intra-day trading volume reactions to earnings announcements of five trader groups, individuals, institutions, exchange members, program traders, and specialists. The results of this study indicate that institutions are most active in the immediate aftermath of an announcement. Individual investors are slow at the beginning but accumulate heavy volume afterwards and exceed institutional trading volume. We find support for Harris and Raviv (1993) and Admati and Pfleiderer (1988), who respectively argue that divergence of opinion about a public information and portfolio rebalancing cause surges in pre and post-announcement trading volume. Further we find evidence of swift and aggressive trading by informed and sophisticated institutions in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, and delayed, aggressive trading volume quot;overreactionquot; by quot;slowquot; and quot;overconfidentquot; individual investors as documented by Barber and Odean (2000, 2002) and Daniel et al (1998). NYSE specialists provide bulk of the liquidity needs around earnings announcements.




Trading on Corporate Earnings News


Book Description

Profit from earnings announcements, by taking targeted, short-term option positions explicitly timed to exploit them! Based on rigorous research and huge data sets, this book identifies the specific earnings-announcement trades most likely to yield profits, and teaches how to make these trades--in plain English, with real examples! Trading on Corporate Earnings News is the first practical, hands-on guide to profiting from earnings announcements. Writing for investors and traders at all experience levels, the authors show how to take targeted, short-term option positions that are explicitly timed to exploit the information in companies' quarterly earnings announcements. They first present powerful findings of cutting-edge studies that have examined market reactions to quarterly earnings announcements, regularities of earnings surprises, and option trading around corporate events. Drawing on enormous data sets, they identify the types of earnings-announcement trades most likely to yield profits, based on the predictable impacts of variables such as firm size, visibility, past performance, analyst coverage, forecast dispersion, volatility, and the impact of restructurings and acquisitions. Next, they provide real examples of individual stocks-and, in some cases, conduct large sample tests-to guide investors in taking advantage of these documented regularities. Finally, they discuss crucial nuances and pitfalls that can powerfully impact performance.




How Investors Trade Around Interim Earnings Announcements


Book Description

This study focuses on non-institutional trading behavior around interim earnings announcements in the emerging market. We separate the stock trading activity of Finnish households into five trading classes and compare the results to corresponding institutional trading. Data covering the years 1996-2000 shows that earnings news triggers trading in every trading classes. Before the event, especially active individuals show increased buying and selling activity compared to the non-event period. This finding supports Kim and Verrecchia's (1991a, b) proposition that announcement stimulates private information-gathering and trading. After the event we find that Finnish households in the most active investor class tend to follow a contrarian strategy, especially selling after the good news. This adds to previous evidence by Grinblatt and Keloharju (2000b). Further, individuals with active trading, perform better than the passive investors around the announcement. Finally, the impact of the announcement on institutional trading is clearly milder compared to that on the active investor classes.