Contrary to existing event studies around option listing introductions, we show short selling and options trading are complements, rather than substitutes. Further, while a plethora of literature demonstrates both short sellers and option traders are informed traders, relatively little is known...

Recent research finds that investors, broadly defined, react to the linguistic tone of quarterly earnings conference calls; there is a positive relation between firms' stock returns and call tone (a measure of “sentiment” related word tabulations). However, this type of soft information can...

China launched a pilot scheme in March 2010 to lift the ban on short-selling and margin-trading for stocks on a designated list. We find that stocks experience negative returns when added to the list. After the ban is lifted, price efficiency increases while stock return volatility decreases....

In this study, we examine the impact of a market-wide mandatory disclosure policy on short selling on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. We find that average short selling slightly declined while investors’ shorting strategies changed significantly in response to the disclosure. Previously highly...

During the Summer of 2011, securities regulators in France,Italy and Spain reintroduced a ban on short sales. This ban differed from previous restrictions: it was the first time regulators prohibited net short sales on selected financial stocks, and extended the ban widely to include synthetic...

Christophe et al. (2010) find evidence of abnormal short activity prior to analyst downgrades and argue that short sellers may be violating SEC insider-trading laws by trading on information obtained from analysts about upcoming downgrades. However, observing abnormal shorting prior to...

Most stock exchange regulators around the world reacted to the 2007-2009 crisis by imposing bans or regulatory constraints on short-selling. Short-selling restrictions were imposed and lifted at different dates in different countries, often applied to different sets of stocks and featured...

Most stock exchange regulators around the world reacted to the 2007-2009 crisis by

Contrary to the hypothesis that informed short sellers increase their positions prior to earnings announcements, we find that short activity declines in the pre-announcement period compared with activity in non-announcement time. This statistically significant, but economically modest, decline...

Short selling plays a unique role in financial markets. Short selling’s institutional structure is distinct from other types of trades, and short sellers have been shown to be more informed than other types of traders. This review discusses short sellers’ motivation, the institutional...