We study changes in market quality variables associated with nine modifications to the New York State Securities Transaction Tax (STT) between 1932 and 1981. We find that when there is an increase in the level of an STT, individual stock volatility increases, bid-ask spreads widen, price impacts...

The SEC is considering the imposition of a trade-at rule which requires venues not at the inside to either significantly improve on price or route to a venue that is quoting at the inside. The rule is expected to greatly reduce the internalization of order flow either directly or through dark...

Existing theoretical literature suggests that floor trading has discernable benefits over electronic trading. In particular floor relationships lead to a reduction in asymmetric information and hence lower spreads. The ability of floor brokers to participate in incoming order flow without...

This paper presents a straightforward method for asymptotically removing the well-known upward bias in observed returns of equally-weighted portfolios. Our method removes all of the bias due to any random transient errors such as bid-ask bounce and allows for the estimation of short horizon...

We examine NASD compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) mandate that all trades be reported within 90 seconds of completion and in sequence. We find a substantial number of out-of-sequence trades both on an absolute level and when compared to out-of-sequence reporting on...

Equity mutual fund data from 1976-1993 is used to test hypotheses that distinguish window dressing from performance hedging. No significant difference is found pre/post 1983 in the number of funds choosing non-December fiscal year ends or in the percentage of dollars invested when comparing...