IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/beexfi/v20y2018icp92-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wash trades as a stock market manipulation tool

Author

Listed:
  • Imisiker, Serkan
  • Tas, Bedri Kamil Onur

Abstract

This study empirically investigates the profitability of one of the most widely used trade-based manipulation tools, namely wash trading. Using a unique account-level data set for the period 2003–2006 from the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE), we generate a measure for the usage of wash trades for each individual account and examine whether wash trading provides excess returns for investors. Our empirical results reveal that significant numbers of investors perform wash trades. In addition, we analyze the optimal percentage of wash trades at which investors maximize excess profits. We find that having up to 10% of total trades as wash trades is the most profitable range, with a 0.5% monthly excess return.

Suggested Citation

  • Imisiker, Serkan & Tas, Bedri Kamil Onur, 2018. "Wash trades as a stock market manipulation tool," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 92-98.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:20:y:2018:i:c:p:92-98
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2018.08.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214635018301783
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbef.2018.08.004?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. Mariassunta Giannetti & Tracy Yue Wang, 2016. "Corporate Scandals and Household Stock Market Participation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2591-2636, December.
    2. Dongmin Kong & Maobin Wang, 2014. "The Manipulator's Poker: Order-Based Manipulation in the Chinese Stock Market," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 73-98, March.
    3. Christian Leuz & Steffen Meyer & Maximilian Muhn & Eugene Soltes & Andreas Hackethal, 2017. "Who Falls Prey to the Wolf of Wall Street? Investor Participation in Market Manipulation," NBER Working Papers 24083, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Simon Gervais & Ron Kaniel & Dan H. Mingelgrin, 2001. "The High‐Volume Return Premium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 877-919, June.
    5. Eyup Kadioðluu & Guray Kuçukkocaoglu & Saim Kilic, 2015. "Closing price manipulation in Borsa Istanbul and the impact of call auction sessions," Borsa Istanbul Review, Research and Business Development Department, Borsa Istanbul, vol. 15(3), pages 213-221, September.
    6. Han N. Ozsoylev & Johan Walden & M. Deniz Yavuz & Recep Bildik, 2014. "Investor Networks in the Stock Market," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(5), pages 1323-1366.
    7. Neupane, Suman & Rhee, S. Ghon & Vithanage, Kulunu & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2017. "Trade-based manipulation: Beyond the prosecuted cases," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 115-130.
    8. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    9. Khwaja, Asim Ijaz & Mian, Atif, 2005. "Unchecked intermediaries: Price manipulation in an emerging stock market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 203-241, October.
    10. Merrick, John Jr & Naik, Narayan Y. & Yadav, Pradeep K., 2005. "Strategic trading behavior and price distortion in a manipulated market: anatomy of a squeeze," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 171-218, July.
    11. Lee, Eun Jung & Eom, Kyong Shik & Park, Kyung Suh, 2013. "Microstructure-based manipulation: Strategic behavior and performance of spoofing traders," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 227-252.
    12. Eyup KADIOGLU & Guray KUCUKKOCAOGLU, 2015. "Intraday Return and Volatility Structures in Borsa Istanbul and the Impact of Opening and Closing Call Auction Sessions," Journal of BRSA Banking and Financial Markets, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, vol. 9(1), pages 103-126.
    13. Chaturvedula, Chakrapani & Bang, Nupur Pavan & Rastogi, Nikhil & Kumar, Satish, 2015. "Price manipulation, front running and bulk trades: Evidence from India," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 26-45.
    14. Comerton-Forde, Carole & Putnins, Talis J., 2011. "Measuring closing price manipulation," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 135-158, April.
    15. Franklin Allen & Lubomir Litov & Jianping Mei, 2006. "Large Investors, Price Manipulation, and Limits to Arbitrage: An Anatomy of Market Corners," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 10(4), pages 645-693, December.
    16. Imisiker, Serkan & Tas, Bedri Kamil Onur, 2013. "Which firms are more prone to stock market manipulation?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 119-130.
    17. Cumming, Douglas & Johan, Sofia & Li, Dan, 2011. "Exchange trading rules and stock market liquidity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 651-671, March.
    18. Rajesh K. Aggarwal & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Stock Market Manipulations," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(4), pages 1915-1954, July.
    19. Tālis J. Putniņš, 2012. "Market Manipulation: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 952-967, December.
    20. Brad M. Barber & Yi-Tsung Lee & Yu-Jane Liu & Terrance Odean, 2009. "Just How Much Do Individual Investors Lose by Trading?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 609-632, February.
    21. Serkan İmişiker & Rasim Özcan & Bedri Kamil Onur Taş, 2015. "Price Manipulation by Intermediaries," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 788-797, July.
    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. Xihan Xiong & Zhipeng Wang & Tianxiang Cui & William Knottenbelt & Michael Huth, 2023. "Market Misconduct in Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Analysis, Regulatory Challenges and Policy Implications," Papers 2311.17715, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    2. Lin William Cong & Xi Li & Ke Tang & Yang Yang, 2021. "Crypto Wash Trading," Papers 2108.10984, arXiv.org.
    3. Aziz Simsir, Serif & Simsek, Koray D., 2022. "The market impact of private information before corporate Announcements: Evidence from Turkey," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Serneels, Sven, 2023. "Detecting wash trading for nonfungible tokens," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    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. Kadıoğlu, Eyüp & Frömmel, Michael, 2022. "Manipulation in the bond market and the role of investment funds: Evidence from an emerging market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Serkan İmişiker & Rasim Özcan & Bedri Kamil Onur Taş, 2015. "Price Manipulation by Intermediaries," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 788-797, July.
    3. Liu, Jie & Wu, Chonglin & Yuan, Lin & Liu, Jia, 2022. "Opening price manipulation and its value influences," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Robert Jarrow & Scott Fung & Shih-Chuan Tsai, 2018. "An empirical investigation of large trader market manipulation in derivatives markets," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 331-374, October.
    5. Eray GEMICI & Mehmet CIHANGIR & Emre YAKUT, 2017. "Islem Bazli Manipulasyon: Turkiye Ornegi," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 17(3), pages 369-380.
    6. Cumming, Douglas & Ji, Shan & Peter, Rejo & Tarsalewska, Monika, 2020. "Market manipulation and innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    7. Sheridan Titman & Chishen Wei. Wei & Bin Zhao, 2021. "Corporate Actions and the Manipulation of Retail Investors in China: An Analysis of Stock Splits," NBER Working Papers 29212, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Cumming, Douglas & Dannhauser, Robert & Johan, Sofia, 2015. "Financial market misconduct and agency conflicts: A synthesis and future directions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 150-168.
    9. Cao, Zhiqi & Lv, Dayong & Sun, Zhenzhen, 2021. "Stock price manipulation, short-sale constraints, and breadth-return relationship," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Yu Huang & Yao Cheng, 2015. "Stock manipulation and its effects: pump and dump versus stabilization," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 791-815, May.
    11. Carole Comerton-Forde & Tālis J. Putniņš, 2014. "Stock Price Manipulation: Prevalence and Determinants," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(1), pages 23-66.
    12. Aitken, Michael & Cumming, Douglas & Zhan, Feng, 2015. "High frequency trading and end-of-day price dislocation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 330-349.
    13. Titman, Sheridan & Wei, Chishen & Zhao, Bin, 2022. "Corporate actions and the manipulation of retail investors in China: An analysis of stock splits," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 762-787.
    14. Tālis J. Putniņš, 2012. "Market Manipulation: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 952-967, December.
    15. Ke Liu & Kin Lai & Jerome Yen & Qing Zhu, 2015. "A Model of Stock Manipulation Ramping Tricks," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 45(1), pages 135-150, January.
    16. Duong, Huu Nhan & Goyal, Abhinav & Kallinterakis, Vasileios & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2021. "Market manipulation rules and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    17. Kemme, David M. & McInish, Thomas H. & Zhang, Jiang, 2022. "Market fairness and efficiency: Evidence from the Tokyo Stock Exchange," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    18. Christian Leuz & Steffen Meyer & Maximilian Muhn & Eugene Soltes & Andreas Hackethal, 2017. "Who Falls Prey to the Wolf of Wall Street? Investor Participation in Market Manipulation," NBER Working Papers 24083, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Chau, Ching & Aspris, Angelo & Foley, Sean & Malloch, Hamish, 2021. "Quote-Based manipulation of illiquid securities," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    20. Viktoria Dalko & Michael H. Wang, 2020. "High-frequency trading: Order-based innovation or manipulation?," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(4), pages 289-298, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade-based manipulation; Wash trades; Market structure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General

    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:eee:beexfi:v:20:y:2018:i:c:p:92-98. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-behavioral-and-experimental-finance .

    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.