This paper documents the significant role of ECNs in forming the inside market in NASDAQ securities. We argue that the ECNs need to be exposed to market orders through the SOES system.

We find that turnover rises on n-day highs and lows and is an increasing function of n. We offer several explanations from the technical and behavioral finance literature for why traders might use these signals. Turnover is persistent following these events, and new lows provide abnormal returns...

This paper assesses the contribution of monetary policy to bond returns volatility, assuming that the monetary authority controls the short-term nominal interest rate. We model exogenously the joint process for the aggregate endowment and the nominal interest rate, and we determine endogenously...

The Nasdaq stock market provides information about buying and selling interest in what is called the Level II display. Using a bivariate VAR model of trades and quotes, I assess the effect of Level II prices and depths on short-run quote dynamics. I also determine the influence of individual...

We undertake a structural analysis of the Hasbrouck unobserved components and the Madhavan, Richardson, and Roomans microstructure models. We map carefully the relationship between the structural parameters and four alternative measures of price discovery: (1) Hasbrouck; (2) Harris-McInish-Wood;...

Emissions markets have emerged in Europe, the U.S., and around the globe. This paper analyzes the market structure of trading in these instruments. Within the EU ETS, I find, after controlling for a structural break in April 2006, that the major spot and futures exchanges in Europe are...

We compare several models for Bear Stearns' credit default swap spreads estimated via a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. The Bayes Factor selects a CKLS model with GARCH-EPD errors as the best model. This model captures the volatility clustering and extreme tail returns of the swaps during...

This paper investigates the market microstructure of the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. The two major Chinese stock markets are pure order-driven trading mechanisms without market makers, and we analyze empirically both limit order books. We begin our empirical modeling using the vector...

We consider a model of an internet chat room with free entry but secure identity. Traders exchange messages in real time of both a fundamental and non-fundamental nature. We explore conditions under which traders post truthful information and make trading decisions. We also establish a symmetric...

We analyze high frequency trading (HFT) activity in equities during U.S. Treasury permanent open market (POMO) purchases by the Federal Reserve. We construct a model to study HFT quote and trade behavior when private information is released and confirm it empirically. We estimate that HFT firms...