This paper examines how well the market anticipates regulatory sanction. We look at key dates of SEC, NASD, FTC, Congressional and foreign investigations and their subsequent resolution. Our event study confirms that the settlements provide little new information to the market. In six major case...

Breakdowns in market quality are extreme price movements that reverse once the market learns that nothing fundamental has occurred. The average daily breakdown frequency from 1993-2013 is 1.03%, with averages in 2010-2013 more than two-thirds lower at 0.34%. Breakups, extreme price increases,...

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...