This paper examines the information contents of trading activities in the corporate bond market prior to earnings announcements. We find that the direction of pre-announcement bond trading is significantly related to earnings surprises. Such linkage is most evident prior to negative news and in...

We investigate the new reality of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). We show that many ETFs are active investments in form (designed to generate alpha) or function (serve as building blocks of active portfolios). The median ETF has an Activeness Index of 93.1%. Active-in-form ETFs have positive...

A goal for stock exchanges is to increase participation by firms and investors. We show how specific features of the microstructure can reduce perceived ambiguity, and induce participation by both investors and issuers. We develop a model with sophisticated traders, who we view as expected...