This paper examines how risk in trading activity can affect the volatility of asset prices. We look for this relationship in the behavior of interest rate swap spreads and in the volume and interest rates of repurchase contracts. Specifically, we focus on convergence trading, in which...

We document that shareholders of high-yield firms are less sensitive to credit rating downgrades the higher the proportion of bank financing in the firm. This positive effect is linked to firm behavior. In the year after the downgrade, high-yield firms with large bank debt ratios i) need to...

The value of technical analysis (TA) has been debated for decades; however, limited evidence exists on the profitability of investment recommendations issued by technical analysts. These ‘chartists' sometimes claim that TA is an art rather than a science. We evaluated more than 5000 TA-based...

This paper provides evidence that the market does not efficiently incorporate expected returns implied by analyst price targets into prices. I use a novel decomposition to extract information and bias components from these analyst-expected returns and develop an asset pricing framework that...

Given the growing importance of terrorism in today's world, it is essential to understand its impact on the global economy. This paper examines the case of Israel to consider the impact of this phenomenon on the nation's economy. Specifically, it will aim to determine whether the Israeli...

This paper examines how the release of industry rivals' earnings news during the IPO book-building period affects a firm's process of going public. The aggregate effect of rivals' earnings news is measured by a signal-to-noise ratio. Higher signal-to-noise ratios indicate better rivals' earnings...

Purpose: Retail investors use information provided by mutual fund rating agencies to make investment decisions. This paper examines whether the ratings provide useful information to retail investors by analyzing the rating migration and closure risk of mutual funds that received Morningstar's...

We study the trading of dealers around new bond issues underwritten by their affiliates using a complete matched record of U.S. bond market transactions, bond issue deals, and underwriter ownership structure from 2005 to 2015. Compared to dealers unaffiliated with the lead underwriter,...

We study the trading of dealers around new bond issues underwritten by affiliates using a complete matched record of U.S. bond market transactions, ownership structure, and bond issues from 2005 to 2015. Compared to dealers unaffiliated to the lead underwriter, affiliated dealers pay 30–60...

Based on a unique dataset that identifies the locations of 19,832 financial analysts covering 21,885 firms from 49 countries during 1996-2013, we find that individualism of analysts' country of residence is negatively associated with their earnings forecast optimism and positively associated...