We use high-frequency data from the Nasdaq exchange to build a measure of volume imbalance in the limit order book (LOB). We show that our measure is a good predictor of the sign of the next market order (MO), i.e. buy or sell, and also helps to predict price changes immediately after the...

When a long-term investor trades a slowly changing portfolio, she is not very time sensitive to when she should place or modify her bet. Short-term information can be used to guide the investor on how to time her trades. Strategic trade modification provides exposure to short-term signals...

I investigate whether the relation between investor sentiment and profitable trading strategies is due to short sale constraints. I find that the average security in these strategies is not hard-to-short. Furthermore, the short leg does not appear to be harder to short or more overvalued than...

Because dividends are taxed at a higher rate than capital gains, as stock with a higher yields should have a higher expected return than a stock whose return is expected to result mostly from price appreciation. Adding yield to the traditional Security Market Line results in a "market plane"...

We provide empirical evidence that the returns on US equity momentum exhibit a time-varying skewness which deepens during dramatic losses (crashes). As a result, the dynamics of the strategy expected returns reflects the time variation in both conditional volatility and skewness. This has first...

We cross-sectionally analyze the presence of aggregated hidden depth and trade volume in the S&P 500 and identify its key determinants. We find that the spread is the main predictor for a stock's hidden dimension, both in terms of traded and posted liquidity. Our findings moreover suggest that...

Garbade and Silber (1979) demonstrate that an asset will be liquid if it has (1) low price volatility and (2) a large number of public investors who trade it. Although these results match nicely with common notions of liquidity, one key element is missing: liquidity also depends on (3) an asset...

This paper studies the empirical early exercise behavior of Individual Investors in non-tradable putable bonds. Analyzing circa 31 million holding and exercise decisions of more than 220,000 Individual Investors over 13 years, our major findings are: (i) Individual Investors use their early...

This study investigates the impact of strategic order activities during the pre-opening session of trading halts on post-halt return and volatility. Strategic orders are non-binding, aggressive limit orders that are placed in the pre-opening phase but subsequently cancelled or revised shortly...