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Shorting at close range: A tale of two types

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  • Comerton-Forde, Carole
  • Jones, Charles M.
  • Putniņš, Tālis J.

Abstract

We examine returns, order flow, and market conditions in the minutes before, during, and after NYSE and Nasdaq short sales. We find two distinct types of short sales: those that provide liquidity, and those that demand it. Liquidity-supplying shorts are strongly contrarian at intraday horizons. They trade when spreads are unusually wide, facing greater adverse selection. Liquidity-demanding shorts trade when spreads are narrow and tend to follow short-term price declines. These results support a competitive rational expectations model where both market-makers and informed traders short, indicating that these two shorting types are integral to both price discovery and liquidity provision.

Suggested Citation

  • Comerton-Forde, Carole & Jones, Charles M. & Putniņš, Tālis J., 2016. "Shorting at close range: A tale of two types," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 546-568.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:121:y:2016:i:3:p:546-568
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.05.002
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    Cited by:

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    2. Fernando Chague & Rodrigo De Losso, Bruno Giovannetti, 2017. "Uncovering Skilled Short-sellers," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2017_01, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    3. Xu, Liao & Xu, Lu & Zhao, Jing & Zhao, Yang, 2020. "Information-based trading and information propagation: Evidence from the exchange traded fund market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    4. Antonio Gargano & Juan Sotes-Paladino & Patrick Verwijmeren, 2022. "Out of Sync: Dispersed Short Selling and the Correction of Mispricing," Working Papers 108, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    5. Eom, Yunsung & Hahn, Jaehoon & Sohn, Wook, 2021. "Short sales restrictions and market quality: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    6. Kelley Bergsma & Andy Fodor & Vijay Singal & Jitendra Tayal, 2020. "Option trading after the opening bell and intraday stock return predictability," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(3), pages 769-804, September.
    7. Chen, Shenglan & Chou, Robin K. & Liu, Xiaoling & Wu, Yuhui, 2020. "Deregulation of short-selling constraints and cost of bank loans: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Comerton-Forde, Carole & Grégoire, Vincent & Zhong, Zhuo, 2019. "Inverted fee structures, tick size, and market quality," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 141-164.
    9. Michael McKenzie & Ólan T. Henry, 2012. "The determinants of short selling: evidence from the Hong Kong equity market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52, pages 183-216, October.
    10. Archana Jain & Chinmay Jain & Christine X. Jiang, 2019. "Early Movers Advantage? Evidence from Short Selling during After‐Hours on Earnings Announcement Days," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 235-264, May.
    11. Peter N Dixon, 2021. "Why Do Short Selling Bans Increase Adverse Selection and Decrease Price Efficiency? [The market for ‘lemons’: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism]," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 122-168.
    12. von Beschwitz, Bastian & Chuprinin, Oleg & Massa, Massimo, 2017. "Why Do Short Sellers Like Qualitative News?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 645-675, April.
    13. Dixon, Peter N. & Fox, Corbin A. & Kelley, Eric K., 2021. "To own or not to own: Stock loans around dividend payments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 539-559.
    14. Yeongsuk Cho & Youngsik Kwak, 2018. "A Comparative Study on the Information Effect of Stock Lending and Borrowing and Short Selling between the Korea Stock Exchange and the New Stock Exchange," American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, Science Publications, vol. 10(1), pages 11-21, October.
    15. Warren Bailey & Lin Zheng, 2013. "Banks, Bears, and the Financial Crisis," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 44(1), pages 1-51, August.
    16. Hackney, John & Henry, Tyler R. & Koski, Jennifer L., 2020. "Arbitrage vs. informed short selling: Evidence from convertible bond issuers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Lakshithe Wagalath, 2016. "Feedback effects and endogenous risk in financial markets," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 37(2), pages 39-74.
    18. Oleg Chuprinin & Massimo Massa & Bastian von Beschwitz, 2015. "Why Do Short Sellers Like Qualitative News?," International Finance Discussion Papers 1149, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. Xu, Liao & Zhang, Xuan & Zhao, Jing, 2023. "Limited investor attention and biased reactions to information: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    20. Hilal Ok Ergün & Abdullah Yalaman & Viktor Manahov & Hanxiong Zhang, 2021. "Stock market manipulation in an emerging market of Turkey: how do market participants select stocks for manipulation?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(5), pages 354-358, March.
    21. Reed, Adam V. & Samadi, Mehrdad & Sokobin, Jonathan S., 2020. "Shorting in Broad Daylight: Short Sales and Venue Choice," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(7), pages 2246-2269, November.
    22. Haiyan Jiang & Ahsan Habib & Mostafa Monzur Hasan, 2022. "Short Selling: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Future Research," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 1-31, January.
    23. Liao Xu & Xiangkang Yin & Jing Zhao, 2022. "Are the flows of exchange‐traded funds informative?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(4), pages 1165-1200, December.
    24. Xu, Liao & Xue, Mingqi & Zhang, Xuan & Zhao, Yang, 2023. "Heterogeneously informed trading and the stock market efficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Short selling; Information content; Market quality; High-frequency trading;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G19 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Other

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