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Flying under the radar: The real effects of anonymous trading

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  • Attig, Najah
  • El Ghoul, Sadok

Abstract

Using unique data on TSX Attributed Trading and a new proxy of Tobin's Q that accounts for intangible capital (Peters and Taylor, 2017), we investigate the impact of anonymous trading (AT) on managers' ability to use feedback conveyed by stock prices to improve investment efficiency. We show that AT reduces investment efficiency and that both anonymous buyer-initiated and seller-initiated trades have comparable effects. The negative effect of AT on managerial learning from stock prices is significant only for tangible investments and when disagreement among anonymous traders is high. Taken together, our new evidence indicates that AT distorts investment sensitivity to Tobin's Q, plausibly because anonymity attracts additional (uninformed) liquidity trading, which negatively impacts the effectiveness of asset prices in aggregating private information and in revealing fundamentals.

Suggested Citation

  • Attig, Najah & El Ghoul, Sadok, 2021. "Flying under the radar: The real effects of anonymous trading," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:71:y:2021:i:c:s0929119921002145
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.102092
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Anonymous trading; Informative feedback; Tobin's Q; Investment efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies

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