We document trade price clustering in the futures markets. We find clustering at prices of x.00 and x.50 for S&P 500 futures contracts. While trade price clustering is evident throughout time to maturity of these contracts, there is a dramatic change when the S&P 500 futures contract is...

The study investigates competition in the market for NASDAQ stocks during a recent period in U.S. equity markets history when three major ECNs - Archipelago, Island, and Instinet - are identifiable in TAQ. We show that the ECNs compete with NASDAQ's SuperMontage on the basis of quotes, execution...

The study investigates competition in the market for NASDAQ stocks during a recent period in U.S. equity markets history when three major ECNs - Archipelago, Island, and Instinet - are identifiable in TAQ. We show that the ECNs compete with NASDAQ's SuperMontage on the basis of quotes, execution...

Blume and Goldstein [Journal of Finance 52, 1997, 221-244] suggest that quote competition between trading venues may diminish following tick size reductions. We test this suggestion by studying the competitive landscape in the NYSE-listed stocks before and after decimalization. We find that NBBO...

This paper studies the link between secondary market liquidity for a corporate bond and the bond's yield spread at issuance. Using ex-ante measures of expected liquidity at the time of issuance, based on the characteristics of the underwriting syndicate, we find an economically large impact of...

We examine liquidity across different types of markets by using execution costs as a proxy for liquidity. We conduct a thorough analysis of execution costs on the NYSE versus Electronic Markets. We adopt a variety of techniques attempting to correct for the selection bias problem. Unlike current...

This study examines dealer behavior and trading activity for a sample of 3,181 newly issued corporate bonds, focusing on underpricing at issuance and subsequent price dispersion. Unlike the equity market, the measured underpricing is the result of both an ex-ante pricing decision made by the...

The institutional brokerage industry faces ever increasing pressure to lower trading costs, which has already driven down average commissions and shifted volume towards low-cost execution venues. However, traditional full-service brokers that bundle execution with services remain a force and...

This paper reports the results of a unique experiment designed to assess the impact of last-sale trade reporting on the liquidity of BBB corporate bonds. We find that increased transparency has either a neutral or positive effect on market liquidity depending on trade size. Measures of trading...