IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jfnres/v47y2024i2p401-433.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Excess cash and equity option liquidity

Author

Listed:
  • Min Deng
  • Minh Nguyen

Abstract

We examine the relation between excess corporate cash holdings and equity option market liquidity from January 3, 2005 to December 31, 2019. We show that the level of cash reserve in excess of what can be captured by firm characteristics significantly explains stock option liquidity. Trading volume and option open interest increase in companies with a higher magnitude of excess cash, whereas the bid–ask spreads of stock options decline in excess cash. Our findings confirm the theoretical prediction that excess cash improves option market liquidity as it reduces adverse selection problems caused by uncertainty in firm valuations. This relation remains more pronounced with put options, out‐of‐the‐money contracts, and short‐maturity contracts. In addition, excess cash has a stronger impact on option liquidity within firms that have a greater degree of informed trading and during high‐volatility periods in financial markets. Our results show that when uncertainty about firm prospects rises, excess cash becomes more valuable and affects option market liquidity.

Suggested Citation

  • Min Deng & Minh Nguyen, 2024. "Excess cash and equity option liquidity," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 401-433, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jfnres:v:47:y:2024:i:2:p:401-433
    DOI: 10.1111/jfir.12379
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jfir.12379
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jfir.12379?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yangyang Chen & Rui Ge & Henock Louis & Leon Zolotoy, 2019. "Stock liquidity and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 309-340, March.
    2. Jun Pan & Allen M. Poteshman, 2006. "The Information in Option Volume for Future Stock Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 871-908.
    3. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    4. Massimo Massa & Andrei Simonov, 2006. "Hedging, Familiarity and Portfolio Choice," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 633-685.
    5. Duchin, Ran & Ozbas, Oguzhan & Sensoy, Berk A., 2010. "Costly external finance, corporate investment, and the subprime mortgage credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 418-435, September.
    6. Sanford J. Grossman & Merton H. Miller, 1988. "Liquidity and Market Structure," NBER Working Papers 2641, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Dmitriy Muravyev & Neil D Pearson & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2020. "Options Trading Costs Are Lower than You Think," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(11), pages 4973-5014.
    8. Trond M. Døskeland & Hans K. Hvide, 2011. "Do Individual Investors Have Asymmetric Information Based on Work Experience?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 1011-1041, June.
    9. Allaudeen Hameed & Wenjin Kang & S. Viswanathan, 2010. "Stock Market Declines and Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 257-293, February.
    10. Thomas W. Bates & Kathleen M. Kahle & René M. Stulz, 2009. "Why Do U.S. Firms Hold So Much More Cash than They Used To?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 1985-2021, October.
    11. Back, Janis & Prokopczuk, Marcel & Rudolf, Markus, 2013. "Seasonality and the valuation of commodity options," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 273-290.
    12. Leland, Hayne E, 1985. "Option Pricing and Replication with Transactions Costs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(5), pages 1283-1301, December.
    13. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    14. Ray Ball, 2006. "International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): pros and cons for investors," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(S1), pages 5-27.
    15. Mikhail Simutin, 2010. "Excess Cash and Stock Returns," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 1197-1222, September.
    16. Wu, Wei-Shao & Liu, Yu-Jane & Lee, Yi-Tsung & Fok, Robert C.W., 2014. "Hedging costs, liquidity, and inventory management: The evidence from option market makers," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 25-48.
    17. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:3:p:617-37 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Chordia, Tarun & Roll, Richard & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2000. "Commonality in liquidity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 3-28, April.
    19. Michael Faulkender & Rong Wang, 2006. "Corporate Financial Policy and the Value of Cash," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1957-1990, August.
    20. Cao, Melanie & Wei, Jason, 2010. "Option market liquidity: Commonality and other characteristics," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 20-48, February.
    21. Ozkan, Aydin & Ozkan, Neslihan, 2004. "Corporate cash holdings: An empirical investigation of UK companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2103-2134, September.
    22. Ng, Jeffrey, 2011. "The effect of information quality on liquidity risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 126-143.
    23. Gromb, Denis & Vayanos, Dimitri, 2002. "Equilibrium and welfare in markets with financially constrained arbitrageurs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 361-407.
    24. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "Corrigendum to "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings"; [Journal of Accounting and Economics 29 (2000) 1-51]," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 241-241, October.
    25. Lin, Zih-Ying & Chang, Chuang-Chang & Wang, Yaw-Huei, 2018. "The impacts of asymmetric information and short sales on the illiquidity risk premium in the stock option market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 152-165.
    26. Natividad Blasco & Pilar Corredor & Rafael Santamaría, 2010. "Does informed trading occur in the options market? Some revealing clues," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(3), pages 555-579, September.
    27. Borokhovich, Kenneth A. & Parrino, Robert & Trapani, Teresa, 1996. "Outside Directors and CEO Selection," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 337-355, September.
    28. Gopalan, Radhakrishnan & Kadan, Ohad & Pevzner, Mikhail, 2012. "Asset Liquidity and Stock Liquidity," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 333-364, April.
    29. Alam, Md. Samsul & Atif, Muhammad & Chien-Chi, Chu & Soytaş, Uğur, 2019. "Does corporate R&D investment affect firm environmental performance? Evidence from G-6 countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 401-411.
    30. Liu, Weimin, 2006. "A liquidity-augmented capital asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 631-671, December.
    31. Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Nanda, Vikram, 1991. "Multimarket Trading and Market Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 483-511.
    32. Huang, Winifred & Mazouz, Khelifa, 2018. "Excess cash, trading continuity, and liquidity risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 275-291.
    33. Mark S. Seasholes & Ning Zhu, 2010. "Individual Investors and Local Bias," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1987-2010, October.
    34. Chung, Kee H. & Elder, John & Kim, Jang-Chul, 2010. "Corporate Governance and Liquidity," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 265-291, April.
    35. Patrick Augustin & Menachem Brenner & Marti G. Subrahmanyam, 2019. "Informed Options Trading Prior to Takeover Announcements: Insider Trading?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5697-5720, December.
    36. Hu, Jianfeng, 2014. "Does option trading convey stock price information?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(3), pages 625-645.
    37. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:1235-1258 is not listed on IDEAS
    38. repec:bla:jfinan:v:44:y:1989:i:1:p:1-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. Ding, Rong & Hou, Wenxuan, 2015. "Retail investor attention and stock liquidity," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 12-26.
    40. Biais, Bruno & Hillion, Pierre, 1994. "Insider and Liquidity Trading in Stock and Options Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(4), pages 743-780.
    41. Ebenezer Asem & Shamsul Alam, 2014. "Cash Hoards And Changes In Investors' Outlook," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 37(1), pages 119-137, February.
    42. Choy, Siu-Kai, 2015. "Retail clientele and option returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 26-42.
    43. Atilgan, Yigit, 2014. "Volatility spreads and earnings announcement returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 205-215.
    44. Wang, F. Albert, 2001. "Overconfidence, Investor Sentiment, and Evolution," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 138-170, April.
    45. Lin, Ji-Chai & Singh, Ajai K. & Yu, Wen, 2009. "Stock splits, trading continuity, and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 474-489, September.
    46. Mikkelson, Wayne H. & Partch, M. Megan, 2003. "Do Persistent Large Cash Reserves Hinder Performance?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 275-294, June.
    47. Black, Fischer, 1972. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Restricted Borrowing," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(3), pages 444-455, July.
    48. Thanos Verousis & Owain ap Gwilym & Nikolaos Voukelatos, 2016. "Commonality in equity options liquidity: evidence from European Markets," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(12), pages 1204-1223, September.
    49. Thanos Verousis & Owain ap Gwilym & XiaoHua Chen, 2016. "The intraday determination of liquidity in the NYSE LIFFE equity option markets," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(12), pages 1164-1188, September.
    50. Chunbo Liu & Cheng Zhang & Zhiping Zhou, 2018. "From funding liquidity to market liquidity: Evidence from the index options market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(10), pages 1189-1205, October.
    51. Byun, Suk-Joon & Kim, Da-Hea, 2016. "Gambling preference and individual equity option returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 155-174.
    52. Mayers, David & Shivdasani, Anil & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1997. "Board Composition and Corporate Control: Evidence from the Insurance Industry," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(1), pages 33-62, January.
    53. Gromb, Denis & Vayanos, Dimitri, 2003. "Corrigendum to "Equilibrium and welfare in markets with financially constrained arbitrageurs" [J. Financial Economics 66 (2002) 361]," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 531-531, March.
    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. Huang, Winifred & Mazouz, Khelifa, 2018. "Excess cash, trading continuity, and liquidity risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 275-291.
    2. Sheng Huang & Jonathan Williams & Ru Xie, 2017. "The Future of Money: Liquidity co-movement between financial institutions and real estate firms: evidence from China," Working Papers 17004, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    3. Dang, Tung Lam & Luong, Hoang & Nguyen, Lily & Nguyen, My, 2024. "Political uncertainty and commonality in liquidity," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Brisker, Eric R. & Çolak, Gönül & Peterson, David R., 2013. "Changes in cash holdings around the S&P 500 additions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1787-1807.
    5. Dimitri Vayanos & Jiang Wang, 2012. "Market Liquidity -- Theory and Empirical Evidence," NBER Working Papers 18251, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2013. "Market Liquidity—Theory and Empirical Evidence ," 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 1289-1361, Elsevier.
    7. Cristina Martínez-Sola & Pedro J. García-Teruel & Pedro Martínez-Solano, 2018. "Cash holdings in SMEs: speed of adjustment, growth and financing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 823-842, December.
    8. Ahrends, Meike & Drobetz, Wolfgang & Nomikos, Nikos K., 2018. "Corporate cash holdings in the shipping industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 107-124.
    9. Maurizio Rocca & Raffaele Staglianò & Tiziana Rocca & Alfio Cariola & Ekaterina Skatova, 2019. "Cash holdings and SME performance in Europe: the role of firm-specific and macroeconomic moderators," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1051-1078, December.
    10. Chunbo Liu & Cheng Zhang & Zhiping Zhou, 2018. "From funding liquidity to market liquidity: Evidence from the index options market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(10), pages 1189-1205, October.
    11. Ernie Hendrawaty, 2019. "Value of Excess Cash Holdings of Financially Unconstrained Companies," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 13(3), September.
    12. Amess, Kevin & Banerji, Sanjay & Lampousis, Athanasios, 2015. "Corporate cash holdings: Causes and consequences," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 421-433.
    13. Huh, Sahn-Wook & Lin, Hao & Mello, Antonio S., 2015. "Options market makers׳ hedging and informed trading: Theory and evidence," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 26-58.
    14. Lin, Zih-Ying & Chang, Chuang-Chang & Wang, Yaw-Huei, 2018. "The impacts of asymmetric information and short sales on the illiquidity risk premium in the stock option market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 152-165.
    15. Martin Hoesli & Anjeza Kadilli & Kustrim Reka, 2017. "Commonality in Liquidity and Real Estate Securities," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 65-105, July.
    16. Péter Kondor & Dimitri Vayanos, 2019. "Liquidity Risk and the Dynamics of Arbitrage Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(3), pages 1139-1173, June.
    17. Li, Xiafei & Luo, Di, 2019. "Financial constraints, stock liquidity, and stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    18. Bams, Dennis & Honarvar, Iman, 2021. "VIX and liquidity premium," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Mohamed Arouri & Guillaume Pijourlet, 2017. "CSR Performance and the Value of Cash Holdings: International Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 263-284, January.
    20. Tahir Akhtar & Ameen Qasem & Shoaib Khan, 2025. "Internal corporate governance and cash holdings: the role of external governance mechanism," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 1-27, March.

    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:jfnres:v:47:y:2024:i:2:p:401-433. 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/sfaaaea.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.