Price distortions created by so-called “pump-and-dump” schemes are well known, but relatively little is known about the investors in these frauds. By examining 470 “pump-and-dump” schemes using a large data set of trading records for over 110,000 individual investors from a major German...

Using survey and experimental methods, we provide evidence on the materiality and the nature of information communicated in private meetings from the perspective of professional investors. While the existence of private meeting benefits for investors are well documented, the source of such...

When the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates firms for financial fraud, investors only learn about the investigation if managers disclose it, or regulators sanction the firm. We investigate the effects of such disclosures using confidential records on all investigations,...

Managers extensively interact with investors in private. While recent research finds that investors benefit from these offline interactions, little is known about what information is sought during these events. Using field data of over 1,200 questions asked during private meetings, we...

Manipulative communications touting stocks are common in capital markets around the world. Although the price distortions created by so-called “pump-and-dump” schemes are well known, little is known about the investors in these frauds. By examining 421 “pump-and-dump” schemes between...

Using a set of proprietary records, we examine who consumes quarterly earnings conference calls and under which circumstances the calls are consumed. While there is significant interest in calls by institutional investors and sell-side analysts, we find that investors who do not hold a position...

We present evidence consistent with markets failing to properly price information in seasonal earnings patterns. Firms with historically larger earnings in one quarter of the year (“positive seasonality quarters”) have higher returns when those earnings are usually announced. Analysts have...

Using a unique dataset of all one-on-one meetings between senior management and investors for an NYSE-traded firm, we investigate the impact of these private meetings on investor decisions. We find evidence that investors who meet privately with management make more informed trading decisions in...

We show that media coverage of mutual fund holdings affects how investors allocate money across funds. Fund holdings with high past returns attract extra flows, but only if these stocks were recently featured in the media. In contrast, holdings that were not covered in major newspapers do not...

Managers expend significant time and effort preparing disclosures about firm performance and strategy. Although prior literature has explored how variation in the style and presentation of disclosures impacts investors' perceptions of firms, little is known about how firms actually create these...