IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jfinan/v67y2012i3p1009-1043.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decoding Inside Information

Author

Listed:
  • LAUREN COHEN
  • CHRISTOPHER MALLOY
  • LUKASZ POMORSKI

Abstract

Exploiting the fact that insiders trade for a variety of reasons, we show that there is predictable, identifiable “routine” insider trading that is not informative about firms’ futures. A portfolio strategy that focuses solely on the remaining “opportunistic” traders yields value‐weighted abnormal returns of 82 basis points per month, while abnormal returns associated with routine traders are essentially zero. The most informed opportunistic traders are local, nonexecutive insiders from geographically concentrated, poorly governed firms. Opportunistic traders are significantly more likely to have SEC enforcement action taken against them, and reduce trading following waves of SEC insider trading enforcement.

Suggested Citation

  • Lauren Cohen & Christopher Malloy & Lukasz Pomorski, 2012. "Decoding Inside Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 1009-1043, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jfinan:v:67:y:2012:i:3:p:1009-1043
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2012.01740.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2012.01740.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2012.01740.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seyhun, H Nejat, 1988. "The Information Content of Aggregate Insider Trading," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 1-24, January.
    2. Ke, Bin & Huddart, Steven & Petroni, Kathy, 2003. "What insiders know about future earnings and how they use it: Evidence from insider trades," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 315-346, August.
    3. Kahle, Kathleen M., 2000. "Insider trading and the long-run performance of new security issues," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 25-53, March.
    4. Jana P. Fidrmuc & Marc Goergen & Luc Renneboog, 2006. "Insider Trading, News Releases, and Ownership Concentration," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2931-2973, December.
    5. Richard W. Sias, 2010. "Insider Trades and Demand by Institutional and Individual Investors," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 1544-1595, April.
    6. Jaffe, Jeffrey F, 1974. "Special Information and Insider Trading," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 410-428, July.
    7. Enrichetta Ravina & Paola Sapienza, 2010. "What Do Independent Directors Know? Evidence from Their Trading," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Daniel, Kent & Titman, Sheridan, 1997. "Evidence on the Characteristics of Cross Sectional Variation in Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 1-33, March.
    9. Piotroski, Joseph D. & Roulstone, Darren T., 2005. "Do insider trades reflect both contrarian beliefs and superior knowledge about future cash flow realizations?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 55-81, February.
    10. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    11. John Elliott & Dale Morse & Gordon Richardson, 1984. "The Association between Insider Trading and Information Announcements," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 521-536, Winter.
    12. Jose M. Marin & Jacques P. Olivier, 2008. "The Dog That Did Not Bark: Insider Trading and Crashes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2429-2476, October.
    13. Bettis, J. C. & Coles, J. L. & Lemmon, M. L., 2000. "Corporate policies restricting trading by insiders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 191-220, August.
    14. Daniel, Kent, et al, 1997. "Measuring Mutual Fund Performance with Characteristic-Based Benchmarks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1035-1058, July.
    15. Rozeff, Michael S & Zaman, Mir A, 1988. "Market Efficiency and Insider Trading: New Evidence," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 25-44, January.
    16. Lin, Ji-Chai & Howe, John S, 1990. "Insider Trading in the OTC Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1273-1284, September.
    17. Nuno Fernandes & Miguel A. Ferreira, 2009. "Insider Trading Laws and Stock Price Informativeness," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1845-1887, May.
    18. Clarke, Jonathan & Dunbar, Craig & Kahle, Kathleen M., 2001. "Long-Run Performance and Insider Trading in Completed and Canceled Seasoned Equity Offerings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 415-430, December.
    19. Leslie A. Jeng & Andrew Metrick & Richard Zeckhauser, 2003. "Estimating the Returns to Insider Trading: A Performance-Evaluation Perspective," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 453-471, May.
    20. H. Nejat Seyhun, 1992. "Why Does Aggregate Insider Trading Predict Future Stock Returns?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1303-1331.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ali, Usman & Hirshleifer, David, 2017. "Opportunism as a firm and managerial trait: Predicting insider trading profits and misconduct," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 490-515.
    2. Chen, Huaizhi & Cohen, Lauren & Gurun, Umit & Lou, Dong & Malloy, Christopher, 2020. "IQ from IP: Simplifying search in portfolio choice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 118-137.
    3. Goergen, Marc & Renneboog, Luc & Zhao, Yang, 2019. "Insider trading and networked directors," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 152-175.
    4. Chen, Huaizhi & Cohen, Lauren & Gurun, Umit & Lou, Dong & Malloy, Christopher, 2020. "IQ from IP: simplifying search in portfolio choice," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101133, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Drobetz, Wolfgang & Mussbach, Emil & Westheide, Christian, 2020. "Corporate insider trading and return skewness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    6. Lauren Cohen & Christopher Malloy & Lukasz Pomorski, 2010. "Decoding Inside Information," NBER Working Papers 16454, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. George P. Gao & Qingzhong Ma & David T. Ng & Ying Wu, 2022. "The Sound of Silence: What Do We Know When Insiders Do Not Trade?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 4835-4857, July.
    8. Katselas, Dean, 2018. "Insider trading in Australia: Contrarianism and future performance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 112-128.
    9. Laurel Franzen & Xu Li & Oktay Urcan & Mark E. Vargus, 2014. "The Market Response To Insider Sales Of Restricted Stock Versus Unrestricted Stock," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 37(1), pages 99-118, February.
    10. Millicent Chang & Xiaolin Qian & Jing Yu & Yvonne See, 2017. "Does director trading change the information environment?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 42(2), pages 205-229, May.
    11. Lambe, Brendan J., 2016. "An unreliable canary: Insider trading, the cash flow hypothesis and the financial crisis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 151-158.
    12. Gilstrap, Collin & Petkevich, Alex & Teterin, Pavel, 2020. "Striking up with the in crowd: When option markets and insiders agree," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    13. Ferhat Akbas & Chao Jiang & Paul D. Koch, 2020. "Insider Investment Horizon," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 1579-1627, June.
    14. Cziraki, Peter & Lyandres, Evgeny & Michaely, Roni, 2021. "What do insiders know? Evidence from insider trading around share repurchases and SEOs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Jonathan A. Milian, 2016. "Insider sales based on short-term earnings information," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 109-128, July.
    16. Aktas, Nihat & de Bodt, Eric & Van Oppens, Hervé, 2008. "Legal insider trading and market efficiency," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1379-1392, July.
    17. Foley, Sean & Kwan, Amy & McInish, Thomas H. & Philip, Richard, 2016. "Director discretion and insider trading profitability," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 28-43.
    18. Foley, Sean & Kwan, Amy & McInish, Thomas H. & Philip, Richard, 2017. "Reprint of Director discretion and insider trading profitability," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 52-67.
    19. Abu Chowdhury & Sabur Mollah & Mir A. Zaman, 2018. "What Motivates CEO and CFO Trading – Contrarian Beliefs or Superior Information?," Working Papers 2018-10, Swansea University, School of Management.
    20. Chowdhury, Abu & Mollah, Sabur & Al Farooque, Omar, 2018. "Insider-trading, discretionary accruals and information asymmetry," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 341-363.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jfinan:v:67:y:2012:i:3:p:1009-1043. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.