IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jrinsu/v75y2008i4p967-996.html

Some searches may not work properly. We apologize for the inconvenience.

   My bibliography  Save this article

Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Short Selling Insurance Stocks Around Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin M. Blau
  • Robert A. Van Ness
  • Chip Wade

Abstract

We develop several hypotheses regarding short‐selling activity around Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We find that abnormal short selling does not increase until 2 trading days after the landfall of Katrina and that short‐selling activity is much more significant around Rita. We find a substantial increase in short‐selling activity in the trading days prior to the landfall of Rita and relatively less short‐selling activity in the trading days after landfall. There is little evidence that suggests that traders short insurance stocks with more potential exposure in the Gulf region than other insurance stocks in the days before landfall.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin M. Blau & Robert A. Van Ness & Chip Wade, 2008. "Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Short Selling Insurance Stocks Around Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 967-996, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:75:y:2008:i:4:p:967-996
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6975.2008.00293.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6975.2008.00293.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1539-6975.2008.00293.x?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. Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1986. "Tax-induced trading around ex-dividend days," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 287-319, July.
    2. Linda L. Golden & Mulong Wang & Chuanhou Yang, 2007. "Handling Weather Related Risks Through the Financial Markets: Considerations of Credit Risk, Basis Risk, and Hedging," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 74(2), pages 319-346, June.
    3. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    4. Bray, Margaret, 1982. "Learning, estimation, and the stability of rational expectations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 318-339, April.
    5. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1845-1876 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Thomas Aiuppa & Robert J. Carney & Thomas M. Krueger, 1993. "An Examination of Insurance Stock Prices Following the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake," Journal of Insurance Issues, Western Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15.
    7. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:2205-2223 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Welch, Ivo, 1992. "Sequential Sales, Learning, and Cascades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 695-732, June.
    9. Senchack, A. J. & Starks, Laura T., 1993. "Short-Sale Restrictions and Market Reaction to Short-Interest Announcements," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 177-194, June.
    10. Lamb, Reinhold P, 1998. "An Examination of Market Efficiency around Hurricanes," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 163-172, February.
    11. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    12. Routledge, Bryan R, 1999. "Adaptive Learning in Financial Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(5), pages 1165-1202.
    13. Asquith, Paul & Pathak, Parag A. & Ritter, Jay R., 2005. "Short interest, institutional ownership, and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 243-276, November.
    14. Kenneth A. Froot, 1999. "The Evolving Market for Catastrophic Event Risk," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 2(3), pages 1-28, September.
    15. Roger M. Shelor & Dwight C. Anderson & Mark L. Cross, 1990. "The Impact of the California Earthquake on Real Estate Firms' Stock Value," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 5(3), pages 335-340.
    16. 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.
    17. Niehaus, Greg, 2002. "The allocation of catastrophe risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(2-3), pages 585-596, March.
    18. 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.
    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. Semir Ben Ammar, 2020. "Catastrophe Risk and the Implied Volatility Smile," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 87(2), pages 381-405, June.
    2. Ethan Watson & Mary C. Funck, 2012. "A cloudy day in the market: short selling behavioural bias or trading strategy," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(3), pages 238-255, June.
    3. Jassem Alokla & Arief Daynes & Paraskevas Pagas & Panagiotis Tzouvanas, 2023. "Solvency determinants: evidence from the Takaful insurance industry," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 48(4), pages 847-871, October.
    4. Yang, Chih-Yuan & Jhang, Ling-Jhen & Chang, Chia-Chien, 2016. "Do investor sentiment, weather and catastrophe effects improve hedging performance? Evidence from the Taiwan options market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 35-51.
    5. Fink, Jason D. & Fink, Kristin E., 2013. "Hurricane forecast revisions and petroleum refiner equity returns," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    6. Godfrey, Keith R.L., 2016. "Detecting the great short squeeze on Volkswagen," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 323-334.
    7. Greppmair, Stefan & Jank, Stephan & Smajlbegovic, Esad, 2023. "On the importance of fiscal space: Evidence from short sellers during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    8. Seung Kyum Kim, 2020. "The Economic Effects of Climate Change Adaptation Measures: Evidence from Miami-Dade County and New York City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, February.
    9. Chip Wade & Andre Liebenberg & Benjamin M. Blau, 2016. "Information and Insurer Financial Strength Ratings: Do Short Sellers Anticipate Ratings Changes?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 83(2), pages 475-500, June.
    10. Marc A. Ragin & Martin Halek, 2016. "Market Expectations Following Catastrophes: An Examination of Insurance Broker Returns," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 83(4), pages 849-876, December.
    11. Ben Ammar, Semir, 2016. "Pricing of Catastrophe Risk and the Implied Volatility Smile," Working Papers on Finance 1617, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.

    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. Blau, Benjamin M. & Wade, Chip, 2012. "Informed or speculative: Short selling analyst recommendations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 14-25.
    2. Blau, Benjamin M. & Tew, Philip L., 2014. "Short sales and class-action lawsuits," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 79-100.
    3. Jank, Stephan & Roling, Christoph & Smajlbegovic, Esad, 2021. "Flying under the radar: The effects of short-sale disclosure rules on investor behavior and stock prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 209-233.
    4. Stephen L. Lenkey, 2021. "Informed Trading with a Short-Sale Prohibition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1803-1824, March.
    5. Lin, Chih-Yung & Bui, Dien Giau & Lin, Tse-Chun, 2020. "Do short sellers exploit risky business models of banks? Evidence from two banking crises," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    6. Chip Wade & Andre Liebenberg & Benjamin M. Blau, 2016. "Information and Insurer Financial Strength Ratings: Do Short Sellers Anticipate Ratings Changes?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 83(2), pages 475-500, June.
    7. Blau, Benjamin M. & Van Ness, Robert A. & Warr, Richard S., 2012. "Short selling of ADRs and foreign market short-sale constraints," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 886-897.
    8. Benjamin Blau, 2013. "Informed short sales and option introductions," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 365-382, August.
    9. Blau, Benjamin M. & Smith, Jason M., 2014. "Autocorrelation in daily short-sale volume," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 31-41.
    10. Benjamin Blau & Chip Wade, 2013. "Comparing the information in short sales and put options," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 567-583, October.
    11. Rapach, David E. & Ringgenberg, Matthew C. & Zhou, Guofu, 2016. "Short interest and aggregate stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 46-65.
    12. Blau, Benjamin M. & DeLisle, Jared R. & Price, S. McKay, 2015. "Do sophisticated investors interpret earnings conference call tone differently than investors at large? Evidence from short sales," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 203-219.
    13. Benjamin Blau & Tyler Brough, 2015. "Are put-call ratios a substitute for short sales?," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 51-73, April.
    14. Benjamin Blau & Kathleen Fuller & Chip Wade, 2015. "Short Selling and Price Pressure Around Merger Announcements," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 48(2), pages 143-160, October.
    15. Chen, Yong & Da, Zhi & Huang, Dayong, 2022. "Short selling efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 387-408.
    16. Hanauer, Matthias X. & Lesnevski, Pavel & Smajlbegovic, Esad, 2023. "Surprise in short interest," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Blau, Benjamin M. & Pinegar, J. Michael, 2013. "Are short sellers incrementally informed prior to earnings announcements?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 142-155.
    18. Engelberg, Joseph E. & Reed, Adam V. & Ringgenberg, Matthew C., 2012. "How are shorts informed?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(2), pages 260-278.
    19. Michael Sullivan & Andrew Jianzhong Zhang, 2017. "The Accrual Anomaly and the Announcement Effect of Short Arbitrage," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(01), pages 1-26, March.
    20. George D. Cashman & David M. Harrison & Hainan Sheng, 2021. "Option Trading and REIT Returns," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(1), pages 332-389, 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:jrinsu:v:75:y:2008:i:4:p:967-996. 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-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ariaaea.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.