We use seasonality in stock trading activity associated with summer vacation as a source of exogenous variation to study the relationship between trading volume and expected return. Using data from 51 stock markets, we first confirm a widely held belief that stock turnover is significantly lower...

Using data from eleven major international markets that celebrate six cultural New Year holidays not on January 1st, we show that stock markets tend to outperform in days surrounding the cultural New Year. After controlling for firm characteristics, an average stock earns a 2.5 percent higher...