This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Estimating the Returns to Insider Trading

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Leslie A. Jeng
Andrew Metrick
Richard Zeckhauser

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

This paper estimates the returns to insiders when they trade their company’s stock. We first construct a rolling "purchase portfolio" that holds all shares purchased by insiders for a six-month period, and an analogous "sale portfolio" that holds all shares sold by insiders for six months. The six-month horizon is chosen to coincide with the "short-swing" rule of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934; a rule that prohibits profit-taking by insiders for offsetting trades within six months. We then employ performance-evaluation methods to analyze the returns to the purchase and sale portfolios. This approach yields a proxy for the value-weighted returns to insider transactions beginning on the day after their execution and avoids the statistical difficulties that plague event studies on long-horizon returns.

Our methods are designed to estimate the returns earned by insiders themselves and thereby differ from the previous insider-trading literature, which focuses on the "informativeness" of insider trades for other investors. Using a comprehensive sample of reported insider transactions from 1975-1996, we find that the purchase portfolio earns abnormal returns of more than 50 basis points per month. About one-quarter of these abnormal returns accrue within the first five days after the initial transaction, and one-half accrue within the first month. The sale portfolio does not earn abnormal returns. Our portfolio-based approach also allows for straightforward decompositions of performance by various characteristics; we find that the abnormal returns to insider trades in small firms are not significantly different from those in large firms, and that top executives do not earn higher abnormal returns than do other insiders.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/%7Erlwctr/papers/9919.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research in its series Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers with number 19-99.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation:
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:fth:pennfi:19-99

Contact details of provider:
Postal: 3254 Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6367
Phone: (215) 898-7616
Fax: (215) 573-8084
Email:
Web page: http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/~rlwctr/
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Thomas Krichel).

Related research
Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. " On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Brian J. Hall & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 1998. "Are CEOs Really Paid Like Bureaucrats?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(3), pages 653-691, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Seyhun, H Nejat, 1992. "Why Does Aggregate Insider Trading Predict Future Stock Returns?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(4), pages 1303-31, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. John D. Lyon & Brad M. Barber & Chih-Ling Tsai, 1999. "Improved Methods for Tests of Long-Run Abnormal Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(1), pages 165-201, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Kothari, S. P. & Warner, Jerold B., 1997. "Measuring long-horizon security price performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 301-339, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Brav, Alon & Gompers, Paul A, 1997. " Myth or Reality? The Long-Run Underperformance of Initial Public Offerings: Evidence from Venture and Nonventure Capital-Backed Companies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(5), pages 1791-1821, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Seyhun, H Nejat, 1988. "The Information Content of Aggregate Insider Trading," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 1-24, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. B. Espen Eckbo & David C. Smith, 1998. "The Conditional Performance of Insider Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(2), pages 467-498, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Michael S. Rozeff & Mir A. Zaman, 1998. "Overreaction and Insider Trading: Evidence from Growth and Value Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(2), pages 701-716, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Andrew Metrick, 1999. "Performance Evaluation with Transactions Data: The Stock Selection of Investment Newsletters," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(5), pages 1743-1775, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Loughran, Tim & Ritter, Jay R, 1995. " The New Issues Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 23-51, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Barclay, Michael J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1993. "Stealth trading and volatility : Which trades move prices?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 281-305, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Finnerty, Joseph E, 1976. "Insiders and Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1141-48, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Conrad, Jennifer S & Hameed, Allaudeen & Niden, Cathy, 1994. " Volume and Autocovariances in Short-Horizon Individual Security Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1305-29, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Chakravarty, Sugato & McConnell, John J., 1999. "Does Insider Trading Really Move Stock Prices?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(02), pages 191-209, June. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  16. Rozeff, Michael S & Zaman, Mir A, 1988. "Market Efficiency and Insider Trading: New Evidence," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 25-44, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Lin, Ji-Chai & Howe, John S, 1990. " Insider Trading in the OTC Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1273-84, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner, 1998. "Venture Capital Distributions: Short-Run and Long-Run Reactions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(6), pages 2161-2183, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. " Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Meulbroek, Lisa K, 1992. " An Empirical Analysis of Illegal Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1661-99, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Josef Lakonishok & Inmoo Lee, 1998. "Are Insiders' Trades Informative?," NBER Working Papers 6656, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Barber, Brad M. & Lyon, John D., 1997. "Detecting long-run abnormal stock returns: The empirical power and specification of test statistics," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 341-372, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Cornell, Bradford & Sirri, Erik R, 1992. " The Reaction of Investors and Stock Prices to Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 1031-59, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  24. Jaffe, Jeffrey F, 1974. "Special Information and Insider Trading," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 410-28, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Chan, Louis K. C. & Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Lakonishok, Josef, 1995. "Evaluating the performance of value versus glamour stocks The impact of selection bias," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 269-296, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  26. Josef Lakonishok & Robert W. Vishny & Andrei Shleifer, 1993. "Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk," NBER Working Papers 4360, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  27. Sugato Chakravarty & John J. McConnell, 1997. "An Analysis of Prices, Bid/Ask Spreads, and Bid and Ask Depths Surrounding Ivan Boesky's Illegal Trading in Carnation's Stock," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 26(2), Summer.
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Kyri Kyriacou & Bryan Mase, 2004. "Executive Stock Option Exercises and the Predictive Ability of Transaction Value," Public Policy Discussion Papers 04-09, Economics and Finance Section, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University. [Downloadable!]
  2. Kyri Kyriacou & Bryan Mase, 2004. "Executive Stock Option Exercises and the Predictive Ability of Transaction Value," Economics and Finance Discussion Papers 04-09, Economics and Finance Section, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University. [Downloadable!]
  3. Kyriacou, Kyriacos & Luintel, Kul B & Mase, Bryan, 2008. "Private Information in Executives' Option Trades: Evidence from the UK," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2008/4, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section. [Downloadable!]
  4. Del Brio, Esther & Elías Tobar, José, 2005. "Rentabilidad a Corto Plazo de los Insiders en los Mercados Español y Británico," Documentos de Trabajo "Nuevas Tendencias en Dirección de Empresas". Working Papers "New Trends on Business Administration". 2005-10, Interuniversitary Doctorate Program "New Trends on Business Administration", Universities of Valladolid, Burgos and Salamanca (Spain). Programa de Doctorado Interuniversitario "Nuevas Tendencias en Di. [Downloadable!]
  5. Kyriacos Kyriacou & Bryan Mase, 2003. "The Information Contained In The Exercise Of Executive Stock Options," Economics and Finance Discussion Papers 03-17, Economics and Finance Section, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University. [Downloadable!]
  6. Dlugos, Jennifer & Fahlenbrach, Rudiger & Gompers, Paul & Metrick, Andrew, 2005. "Large Blocks of Stock: Prevalence, Size, and Measurement," Working Paper Series 2005-9, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Enrichetta Ravina & Paola Sapienza, 2006. "What Do Independent Directors Know? Evidence from Their Trading," NBER Working Papers 12765, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Kyriacos Kyriacou & Bryan Mase, 2003. "The Information Contained In The Exercise Of Executive Stock Options," Public Policy Discussion Papers 03-17, Economics and Finance Section, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University. [Downloadable!]
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? You can create your own reading lists on IDEAS.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-20.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.