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Short Changed? The Market's Reaction to the Short Sale Ban of 2008

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Author Info
Louis Gagnon
Jonathan Witmer
Abstract

Do short sales restrictions have an impact on security prices? We address this question in the context of a natural experiment surrounding the short sale ban of 2008 using a comprehensive sample of Canadian stocks cross-listed in the U.S. Among financial stocks, which were singled out by the ban in both countries, we observe a significant increase (74 bps) in the difference between the U.S. share price and the Canadian share price. We also observe an impressive and surprising migration of the trading volume from the U.S. to Canada among financial stocks during the ban. Both price and volume effects are reversed after the ban and neither effect manifests itself among the nonfinancial stocks. Our findings support the view that prices reflect a more optimistic valuation when pessimistic investors are kept out of the market by binding short-sales restrictions (Miller (1977)). Our findings also imply that pessimistic investors were more preponderant in the U.S. than in Canada, which is corroborated by the fact that the short interest ratio for our sample stocks was much larger in the U.S. than in Canada prior to the ban.

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File URL: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/res/wp/2009/wp09-23.pdf
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Paper provided by Bank of Canada in its series Working Papers with number 09-23.

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Length: 43 pages
Date of creation: 2009
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Handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:09-23

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Related research
Keywords: Financial markets; International topics;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General
G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General

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  1. Michael J. Aitken & Alex Frino & Michael S. McCorry & Peter L. Swan, 1998. "Short Sales Are Almost Instantaneously Bad News: Evidence from the Australian Stock Exchange," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(6), pages 2205-2223, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Dilip Abreu & Markus K. Brunnermeier, 2003. "Bubbles and Crashes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 173-204, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Abreu, Dilip & Brunnermeier, Markus K., 2002. "Synchronization risk and delayed arbitrage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 341-360. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Karl B. Diether & Christopher J. Malloy & Anna Scherbina, 2002. "Differences of Opinion and the Cross Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2113-2141, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Allen, Franklin & Gale, Douglas, 1991. "Arbitrage, Short Sales, and Financial Innovation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 1041-68, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Hemang Desai & K. Ramesh & S. Ramu Thiagarajan & Bala V. Balachandran, 2002. "An Investigation of the Informational Role of Short Interest in the Nasdaq Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2263-2287, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Arturo Bris & William N. Goetzmann & Ning Zhu, 2007. "Efficiency and the Bear: Short Sales and Markets Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1029-1079, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Ackert, Lucy F. & Athanassakos, George, 2005. "The relationship between short interest and stock returns in the Canadian market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1729-1749, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Alexander, Gordon J. & Peterson, Mark A., 2008. "The effect of price tests on trader behavior and market quality: An analysis of Reg SHO," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 84-111, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Andersen, Torben G & Bollerslev, Tim, 1998. "Answering the Skeptics: Yes, Standard Volatility Models Do Provide Accurate Forecasts," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(4), pages 885-905, November.
  12. Diamond, Douglas W. & Verrecchia, Robert E., 1987. "Constraints on short-selling and asset price adjustment to private information," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 277-311, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Dechow, Patricia M. & Hutton, Amy P. & Meulbroek, Lisa & Sloan, Richard G., 2001. "Short-sellers, fundamental analysis, and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 77-106, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Brent, Averil & Morse, Dale & Stice, E. Kay, 1990. "Short Interest: Explanations and Tests," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(02), pages 273-289, June. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-24.

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