IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v47y2022ipbs1544612322000186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of margin trading and short selling by retail investors on market price efficiency: Empirical evidence from bitcoin exchanges

Author

Listed:
  • Strych, Jan-Oliver

Abstract

I exploit the high fraction of retail investors in the early years of Bitcoin and the introduction of margin trading and short selling by the Bitcoin Exchange Kraken to apply a difference-in-differences approach. I document that the potential composite use of margin trading and short selling is associated with lower market price efficiency. Moreover, I find that more likely short selling relative to margin trading is positively related to market efficiency indicating that margin trading causes their negative composite effect. If margin traders are more likely sophisticated retail investors, the negative impact of margin trading is less pronounced.

Suggested Citation

  • Strych, Jan-Oliver, 2022. "The impact of margin trading and short selling by retail investors on market price efficiency: Empirical evidence from bitcoin exchanges," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:47:y:2022:i:pb:s1544612322000186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.102689
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322000186
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.102689?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karl B. Diether & Kuan-Hui Lee & Ingrid M. Werner, 2009. "Short-Sale Strategies and Return Predictability," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 575-607, February.
    2. Andrew W. Lo, A. Craig MacKinlay, 1988. "Stock Market Prices do not Follow Random Walks: Evidence from a Simple Specification Test," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 41-66.
    3. Hardouvelis, Gikas A, 1990. "Margin Requirements, Volatility, and the Transitory Components of Stock Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 736-762, September.
    4. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 293-319.
    5. Gikas A. Hardouvelis & Stavros Peristiani, 1992. "Margin Requirements, Speculative Trading, and Stock Price Fluctuations: The Case of Japan," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1333-1370.
    6. Gamble, Keith Jacks & Xu, Wei, 2017. "Informed retail investors: Evidence from retail short sales," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 59-72.
    7. Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Nanda, Vikram, 1998. "Leverage and Market Stability: The Role of Margin Rules and Price Limits," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(2), pages 179-210, April.
    8. Köchling, Gerrit & Müller, Janis & Posch, Peter N., 2019. "Does the introduction of futures improve the efficiency of Bitcoin?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 367-370.
    9. Nadarajah, Saralees & Chu, Jeffrey, 2017. "On the inefficiency of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 6-9.
    10. Lee, Yi-Tsung & Liu, Yu-Jane & Roll, Richard & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2004. "Order Imbalances and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the Taiwan Stock Exchange," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(2), pages 327-341, June.
    11. Ekkehart Boehmer & Juan (Julie) Wu, 2013. "Short Selling and the Price Discovery Process," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 287-322.
    12. Steven N. Kaplan & Tobias J. Moskowitz & Berk A. Sensoy, 2013. "The Effects of Stock Lending on Security Prices: An Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1891-1936, October.
    13. Chen, Jun & Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan & Yang, Ting, 2016. "Short selling, margin trading, and the incorporation of new information into prices," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-17.
    14. Chang, Eric C. & Luo, Yan & Ren, Jinjuan, 2014. "Short-selling, margin-trading, and price efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 411-424.
    15. Urquhart, Andrew, 2016. "The inefficiency of Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 80-82.
    16. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100409, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Eric K. Kelley & Paul C. Tetlock, 2017. "Retail Short Selling and Stock Prices," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 801-834.
    18. Campbell, John Y. & Ramadorai, Tarun & Schwartz, Allie, 2009. "Caught on tape: Institutional trading, stock returns, and earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 66-91, April.
    19. Pedro A. C. Saffi & Kari Sigurdsson, 2011. "Price Efficiency and Short Selling," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(3), pages 821-852.
    20. Gikas A. Hardouvelis & Panayiotis Theodossiou, 2002. "The Asymmetric Relation Between Initial Margin Requirements and Stock Market Volatility Across Bull and Bear Markets," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1525-1560.
    21. Eric K. Kelley & Paul C. Tetlock, 2013. "How Wise Are Crowds? Insights from Retail Orders and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 1229-1265, June.
    22. Ekkehart Boehmer & Charles M. Jones & Xiaoyan Zhang, 2008. "Which Shorts Are Informed?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 491-527, April.
    23. Brandvold, Morten & Molnár, Peter & Vagstad, Kristian & Andreas Valstad, Ole Christian, 2015. "Price discovery on Bitcoin exchanges," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 18-35.
    24. Boehme, Rodney D. & Danielsen, Bartley R. & Sorescu, Sorin M., 2006. "Short-Sale Constraints, Differences of Opinion, and Overvaluation," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 455-487, June.
    25. Ekkehart Boehmer & Eric K. Kelley, 2009. "Institutional Investors and the Informational Efficiency of Prices," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3563-3594, September.
    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. Dayong Lv & Wenfeng Wu, 2020. "Margin trading and price efficiency: information content or price‐adjustment speed?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 2889-2918, September.
    2. Lv, Dayong & Wu, Wenfeng, 2019. "Margin-trading volatility and stock price crash risk," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 179-196.
    3. Tsai, Chia-Fen & Chang, Jung-Hsien & Tsai, Feng-Tse, 2021. "Lottery preferences and retail short selling," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    4. Xiong Xiong & Ya Gao & Xu Feng, 2017. "Successive short‐selling ban lifts and gradual price efficiency: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(5), pages 1557-1604, December.
    5. Haiyan Jiang & Ahsan Habib & Mostafa Monzur Hasan, 2022. "Short Selling: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Future Research," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 1-31, January.
    6. Chen, Jun & Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan & Yang, Ting, 2016. "Short selling, margin trading, and the incorporation of new information into prices," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-17.
    7. Yaping Zhou & Xundi Diao & Dayong Lv, 2023. "Role of OTC options in stock price efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4629-4655, December.
    8. Wan, Xiaoyuan, 2020. "The impact of short-selling and margin-buying on liquidity: Evidence from the Chinese stock market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 104-118.
    9. Bessler, Wolfgang & Vendrasco, Marco, 2022. "Short-selling restrictions and financial stability in Europe: Evidence from the Covid-19 crisis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    10. Dixon, Peter N. & Fox, Corbin A. & Kelley, Eric K., 2021. "To own or not to own: Stock loans around dividend payments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 539-559.
    11. Chang, Eric C. & Luo, Yan & Ren, Jinjuan, 2014. "Short-selling, margin-trading, and price efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 411-424.
    12. Jiang, Haiyan & Chen, Jun, 2019. "Short selling and financial reporting quality: Evidence from Chinese AH shares," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 118-130.
    13. Tibor Neugebauer & Sascha Füllbrunn, 2013. "Deflating Bubbles in Experimental Asset Markets: Comparative Statics of Margin Regulations," LSF Research Working Paper Series 13-14, Luxembourg School of Finance, University of Luxembourg.
    14. Lepomäki, Laura & Kanniainen, Juho & Hansen, Henri, 2021. "Retaliation in Bitcoin networks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    15. Yanxi Li & Siu Kai Choy & Mingzhu Wang, 2022. "The potential built‐in supply effect from margin trading in the Chinese stock market," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 835-861, November.
    16. Blau, Benjamin M. & Whitby, Ryan J., 2018. "How does short selling affect liquidity in financial markets?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 244-250.
    17. Baklaci, Hasan F. & Suer, Omur & Yelkenci, Tezer, 2016. "A closer insight into the causality between short selling trades and volatility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 48-54.
    18. Duong, Huu Nhan & Kalev, Petko S. & Tian, Xiao, 2023. "Short selling, divergence of opinion and volatility in the corporate bond market," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    19. He, Jingbin & Ma, Xinru & Wei, Qu, 2022. "Firm-level short selling and the local COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    20. Muhammad Owais Qarni & Saiqb Gulzar, 2021. "Portfolio diversification benefits of alternative currency investment in Bitcoin and foreign exchange markets," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-37, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Market price efficiency; Retail investors; Short selling; Margin trading; Bitcoin;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

    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:eee:finlet:v:47:y:2022:i:pb:s1544612322000186. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.