We compare the call auction mechanisms of two major European stock exchanges. The French Euronext auctions disclose five levels of limit orders and have fixed ending times. The German Xetra auctions only disclose the virtual clearing price and volume, and have random ending times. For a sample...

Continuously monitored down-and-out calls and up-and-out puts have become very popular during the last decade, mainly because they can be interpreted as simple leveraged positions. Their deltas stay close to unity and their Greeks are small, particularly in low interest rate environments....

We show that the distribution of trading volume in call auctions is indicative of the proportion of informed trade. We use the Kyle (1985) model to predict the shape of the volume distribution as a function of the proportion of informed trade. If most liquidity demanders are uninformed, there is...

In this paper, we study the returns of emerging market stocks that are included in the MSCI Emerging Markets index, a widely used benchmark for investment funds. Our sample consists of 269 stocks from 24 countries that were added to the index and 262 stocks that were deleted. We find convincing...

Using an overlapping generations model with liquidity risk, we show that equilibrium aggregate investment and asset prices are cyclical. In an economy with neither a beginning nor an ending date, a stationary equilibrium can be obtained. In a startable equilibrium however, economic activity is...

An endless leverage certificate (ELC) is a novel retail structured product that gives its holder the right to claim the difference between the value of an underlying security and an interest accruing financing level. An ELC ceases to exist if the underlying breaches a contractual knockout level,...

We present an overlapping generations model with spatial separation and agents who face unsystematic liquidity risk. In a pure exchange economy, agents engage in life cycle portfolio rebalancing. In an intermediated economy, intergenerational banks or mutual funds cater to diversified clienteles...

We examine performance in publicly listed U.K. companies over a period that encompasses the issuance of the Cadbury Committee's "Code of Best Practice," which calls for the abolition of the combined CEO/COB position. We find that companies splitting the combined CEO/COB position to conform to...

We propose the Volume Coefficient of Variation (VCV), the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean of trading volume, as a new and easily computable measure of information asymmetry in security markets. We use a simple microstructure model to demonstrate that VCV is strictly increasing in the...

A Kyle (1985) model with private information diffusion is used to examine the motivation to spread stock tips. An informed investor with limited investment capacity spreads imprecise rumors to an audience of followers. Followers trade on the advice and move the price. Due to the imprecision of...