Using a novel dataset where all traders are identifiable, we examine trading in the shares of a major company on the London Stock Exchange before 1920. Our main finding is that bid-ask spreads increased in the presence of informed trades. However, we also find that spreads narrowed during...

Pervasive herding may cause homogenous trading patterns, both within and across stocks and thus may impact upon an important aspect of the market microstructure – liquidity. Potentially, herding could simultaneously affect the liquidity of both individual stocks and that of the market. For...