IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v54y2014i3p965-997.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contracts for dummies? The performance of investors in contracts for difference

Author

Listed:
  • Adrian D. Lee
  • Shan Choy

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="acfi12018-abs-0001" xml:lang="en"> Investors widely use contracts for difference (CFDs) to leverage and short sell underlying financial assets. We investigate the after cost performance of investors in Australian Securities Exchange listed share CFDs, and find that market order CFD trades earn small positive returns at the daily horizon, with negative returns reported for one month to one year horizons due to financing costs. Market orders also net sell positions, which suggests that investors use CFDs for shorting opportunities. Overall, we find that liquidity demanders in CFDs obtain favourable execution, which is inconsistent with the view that CFDs are used by naive individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrian D. Lee & Shan Choy, 2014. "Contracts for dummies? The performance of investors in contracts for difference," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 54(3), pages 965-997, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:54:y:2014:i:3:p:965-997
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/acfi.2014.54.issue-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    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. Bauer, Rob & Cosemans, Mathijs & Eichholtz, Piet, 2009. "Option trading and individual investor performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 731-746, April.
    2. Juhani T. Linnainmaa, 2010. "Do Limit Orders Alter Inferences about Investor Performance and Behavior?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(4), pages 1473-1506, August.
    3. John M. Griffin & Jeffrey H. Harris & Selim Topaloglu, 2003. "The Dynamics of Institutional and Individual Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2285-2320, December.
    4. Henker, Thomas & Wang, Jian-Xin, 2006. "On the importance of timing specifications in market microstructure research," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 162-179, May.
    5. Binh Do & Viet Do & Daniel Chai, 2012. "Does the 2008 short sale ban affect the enforcement of the Law of One Price? Evidence from Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(1), pages 117-144, March.
    6. Menkhoff, Lukas & Osler, Carol L. & Schmeling, Maik, 2010. "Limit-order submission strategies under asymmetric information," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2665-2677, November.
    7. Oh, Natalie Y. & Parwada, Jerry T. & Walter, Terry S., 2008. "Investors' trading behavior and performance: Online versus non-online equity trading in Korea," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 26-43, January.
    8. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2000. "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 773-806, April.
    9. Alok Kumar, 2009. "Who Gambles in the Stock Market?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1889-1933, August.
    10. Christine Brown & Jonathan Dark & Kevin Davis, 2010. "Exchange traded contracts for difference: Design, pricing, and effects," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(12), pages 1108-1149, December.
    11. Chen, Hsiu-Lang & Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Wermers, Russ, 2000. "The Value of Active Mutual Fund Management: An Examination of the Stockholdings and Trades of Fund Managers," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 343-368, September.
    12. Pinnuck, Matt, 2003. "An Examination of the Performance of the Trades and Stock Holdings of Fund Managers: Further Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(4), pages 811-828, December.
    13. Burton Hollifield & Robert A. Miller & Patrik Sandås & Joshua Slive, 2006. "Estimating the Gains from Trade in Limit‐Order Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2753-2804, December.
    14. Goettler, Ronald L. & Parlour, Christine A. & Rajan, Uday, 2009. "Informed traders and limit order markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 67-87, July.
    15. Fong, Kingsley Y. L. & Gallagher, David R. & Lee, Adrian D., 2014. "Individual Investors and Broker Types," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(2), pages 431-451, April.
    16. Sara B. Moeller & Frederik P. Schlingemann & René M. Stulz, 2005. "Wealth Destruction on a Massive Scale? A Study of Acquiring‐Firm Returns in the Recent Merger Wave," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 757-782, April.
    17. Ellis, Katrina & Michaely, Roni & O'Hara, Maureen, 2000. "The Accuracy of Trade Classification Rules: Evidence from Nasdaq," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(4), pages 529-551, December.
    18. Brad M. Barber & Yi-Tsung Lee & Yu-Jane Liu & Terrance Odean, 2009. "Just How Much Do Individual Investors Lose by Trading?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 609-632, February.
    19. Soeren Hvidkjaer, 2008. "Small Trades and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 1123-1151, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Oehler & Julian Schneider, 2022. "Gambling with lottery stocks?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(6), pages 477-503, October.
    2. Douglas Foster, F. & Lee, Adrian D. & Liu, Wai-Man, 2019. "CFDs, forwards, futures and the cost-of-carry," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 183-198.
    3. Petar Peshev, 2021. "Analyzing CFD Retail Investors' Performance in a Post MiFID II Environment," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 53-73.

    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. Danny Lo, 2015. "Essays in Market Microstructure and Investor Trading," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 4-2015.
    2. Barber, Brad M. & Odean, Terrance, 2013. "The Behavior of Individual Investors," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1533-1570, Elsevier.
    3. Danny Lo, 2015. "Essays in Market Microstructure and Investor Trading," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 22, July-Dece.
    4. Barrot, Jean-Noel & Kaniel, Ron & Sraer, David, 2016. "Are retail traders compensated for providing liquidity?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 146-168.
    5. Murphy Jun Jie Lee, 2013. "The Microstructure of Trading Processes on the Singapore Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 4, July-Dece.
    6. Murphy Jun Jie Lee, 2013. "The Microstructure of Trading Processes on the Singapore Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 2-2013.
    7. Chen, Hung-Ling & Chow, Edward H. & Shiu, Cheng-Yi, 2015. "The informational role of individual investors in stock pricing: Evidence from large individual and small retail investors," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 36-56.
    8. Baller, Stefanie, 2017. "Risk taking in the market of speculative exchange-traded retail products: Do socio-economic factors matter?," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Betriebswirtschaftliche Reihe B-27-17, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    9. Djalilov, Abdulaziz & Ülkü, Numan, 2021. "Individual investors’ trading behavior in Moscow Exchange and the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    10. Peress, Joel & Schmidt, Daniel, 2021. "Noise traders incarnate: Describing a realistic noise trading process," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    11. Chi Liao, 2023. "Risk‐taking begets risk‐taking: Evidence from casino openings and investor portfolios," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 143-165, February.
    12. 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.
    13. Jakusch, Sven Thorsten & Meyer, Steffen & Hackethal, Andreas, 2019. "Taming models of prospect theory in the wild? Estimation of Vlcek and Hens (2011)," SAFE Working Paper Series 146, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2019.
    14. Ülkü, Numan & Rogers, Madeline, 2018. "Who drives the Monday effect?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 46-65.
    15. Wang, Qin & Zhang, Jun, 2015. "Does individual investor trading impact firm valuation?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 120-135.
    16. Aktas, Osman Ulas & Kryzanowski, Lawrence, 2014. "Market impacts of trades for stocks listed on the Borsa Istanbul," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 152-175.
    17. Fong, Kingsley & Krug, Juliane D. & Leung, Henry & Westerholm, Joakim P., 2020. "Determinants of household broker choices and their impacts on performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    18. Baller, Stefanie & Entrop, Oliver & Schober, Alexander & Wilkens, Marco, 2017. "What drives performance in the speculative market of short-term exchange-traded retail products?," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Betriebswirtschaftliche Reihe B-26-17, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    19. Ivo Welch, 2022. "The Wisdom of the Robinhood Crowd," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(3), pages 1489-1527, June.
    20. Ron Kaniel & Shuming Liu & Gideon Saar & Sheridan Titman, 2012. "Individual Investor Trading and Return Patterns around Earnings Announcements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 639-680, April.

    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:acctfi:v:54:y:2014:i:3:p:965-997. 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/aaanzea.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.