IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v76y2020icp270-277.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does short selling affect the clustering of stock prices?

Author

Listed:
  • Baig, Ahmed S.
  • Sabah, Nasim

Abstract

We examine the role of short selling activity on the level of price clustering in equity markets. Consistent with the negotiation hypothesis of Harris (1991), we find that at monthly level, higher shorting activity significantly decreases the clustering of daily closing prices on round increments of $0.05. Moreover, at intraday level, transaction prices tend to cluster less on round increments of $0.05 when short sellers are more active. Our findings suggest that both intraday and closing stock prices tend to be more uniformly distributed and hence informationally efficient in the presence of short sellers.

Suggested Citation

  • Baig, Ahmed S. & Sabah, Nasim, 2020. "Does short selling affect the clustering of stock prices?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 270-277.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:76:y:2020:i:c:p:270-277
    DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2019.08.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S106297691830334X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.qref.2019.08.008?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
    ---><---

    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. Urquhart, Andrew, 2017. "Price clustering in Bitcoin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 145-148.
    2. Kandel, Shmuel & Sarig, Oded & Wohl, Avi, 2001. "Do investors prefer round stock prices? Evidence from Israeli IPO auctions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1543-1551, August.
    3. Hemang Desai & K. Ramesh & S. Ramu Thiagarajan & Bala V. Balachandran, 2002. "An Investigation of the Informational Role of Short Interest in the Nasdaq Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2263-2287, October.
    4. Owain ap Gwilym & Evamena Alibo, 2003. "Decreased price clustering in FTSE100 futures contracts following a transfer from floor to electronic trading," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(7), pages 647-659, July.
    5. Clifford A. Ball & Walter N. Torous & Adrian E. Tschoegl, 1985. "The degree of price resolution: The case of the gold market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(1), pages 29-43, March.
    6. Xiaoyan Ni, Sophie & Pearson, Neil D. & Poteshman, Allen M., 2005. "Stock price clustering on option expiration dates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 49-87, October.
    7. Itay Goldstein & Alexander Guembel, 2008. "Manipulation and the Allocational Role of Prices," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(1), pages 133-164.
    8. Christophe, Stephen E. & Ferri, Michael G. & Hsieh, Jim, 2010. "Informed trading before analyst downgrades: Evidence from short sellers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 85-106, January.
    9. Dow, James & Gorton, Gary, 1997. "Stock Market Efficiency and Economic Efficiency: Is There a Connection?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1087-1129, July.
    10. Benjamin M. Blau & Bonnie F. Van Ness & Robert A. Van Ness, 2012. "Trade Size And Price Clustering: The Case Of Short Sales And The Suspension Of Price Tests," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 35(2), pages 159-182, June.
    11. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    12. Brown, Philip & Mitchell, Jason, 2008. "Culture and stock price clustering: Evidence from The Peoples' Republic of China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 95-120, January.
    13. Jones, Charles M. & Lamont, Owen A., 2002. "Short-sale constraints and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 207-239.
    14. 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.
    15. Blau, Benjamin M. & Tew, Philip L., 2014. "Short sales and class-action lawsuits," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 79-100.
    16. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    17. 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.
    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.
    19. Aitken, Michael & Brown, Philip & Buckland, Christine & Izan, H. Y. & Walter, Terry, 1996. "Price clustering on the Australian Stock Exchange," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 4(2-3), pages 297-314, July.
    20. Brown, Alasdair & Yang, Fuyu, 2016. "Limited cognition and clustered asset prices: Evidence from betting markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 27-46.
    21. Blau, Benjamin M. & Griffith, Todd G., 2016. "Price clustering and the stability of stock prices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 3933-3942.
    22. 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.
    23. Berkman, Henk & Dimitrov, Valentin & Jain, Prem C. & Koch, Paul D. & Tice, Sheri, 2009. "Sell on the news: Differences of opinion, short-sales constraints, and returns around earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 376-399, June.
    24. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    25. Benjamin Blau, 2012. "Short Interest and Frictions in the Flow of Information," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 371-394, June.
    26. Friedman, Milton, 1977. "Nobel Lecture: Inflation and Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(3), pages 451-472, June.
    27. Benjamin M Blau & Ryan J Whitby, 2018. "Skewness, short interest and the efficiency of stock prices," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(20), pages 2229-2242, April.
    28. Harris, Lawrence, 1991. "Stock Price Clustering and Discreteness," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 389-415.
    29. Miller, Edward M, 1977. "Risk, Uncertainty, and Divergence of Opinion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1151-1168, September.
    30. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    31. Dechow, Patricia M. & Hutton, Amy P. & Meulbroek, Lisa & Sloan, Richard G., 2001. "Short-sellers, fundamental analysis, and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 77-106, July.
    32. Sopranzetti, Ben J. & Datar, Vinay, 2002. "Price clustering in foreign exchange spot markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 411-417, October.
    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. Dasilas, Apostolos, 2022. "The impact of margin trading and short selling on the investment-to-price sensitivity. Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Donglian Ma & Hisashi Tanizaki, 2022. "Intraday patterns of price clustering in Bitcoin," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Baig, Ahmed S. & Butt, Hassan Anjum & Haroon, Omair & Rizvi, Syed Aun R., 2021. "Deaths, panic, lockdowns and US equity markets: The case of COVID-19 pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(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. Ahmed S. Baig & Benjamin M. Blau & R. Jared DeLisle, 2022. "Does mutual fund ownership reduce stock price clustering? Evidence from active and index funds," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 615-647, February.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Ahmed Baig & Benjamin M. Blau & Todd G. Griffith, 2021. "Firm Opacity and the Clustering of Stock Prices: the Case of Financial Intermediaries," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 187-206, December.
    5. 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.
    6. Charles M. Jones & Adam V. Reed & William Waller, 2016. "Revealing Shorts An Examination of Large Short Position Disclosures," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(12), pages 3278-3320.
    7. 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).
    8. Kelley Bergsma & Jitendra Tayal, 2019. "Short Interest and Lottery Stocks," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 187-227, March.
    9. Tsai, Chia-Fen & Chang, Jung-Hsien & Tsai, Feng-Tse, 2021. "Lottery preferences and retail short selling," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Blau, Benjamin M. & Tew, Philip L., 2014. "Short sales and class-action lawsuits," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 79-100.
    11. Hanauer, Matthias X. & Lesnevski, Pavel & Smajlbegovic, Esad, 2023. "Surprise in short interest," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Baig , Ahmed & Blau , Ben & Hao, Jie, 2020. "Accounting Information Quality and the Clustering of Stock Prices," American Business Review, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, vol. 23(2), pages 182-210, November.
    13. R. Jared DeLisle & Bong Soo Lee & Nathan Mauck, 2016. "The dynamic relation between options trading, short selling, and aggregate stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 645-671, October.
    14. Wang, Yuchen & Wang, Xiaoming, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty and information intermediary: The case of short seller," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    15. Hae Mi Choi, 2020. "Short‐sale constraints and informational efficiency to private information: A natural experiment," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 625-643, November.
    16. Wang, Shu-Feng & Lee, Kuan-Hui & Woo, Min-Cheol, 2017. "Do individual short-sellers make money? Evidence from Korea," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 159-172.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Blocher, Jesse & Haslag, Peter & Zhang, Chi, 2020. "Short trading and short investing," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 154-171.
    20. Yan, Zhipeng & Cheng, Lee-Young & Zhao, Yan & Huang, Chung-Yuan, 2016. "Daily short covering activity and the weekend effect: Evidence from Taiwan," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 166-184.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Short selling; Price clustering; Round prices; Intra-day clustering;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    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:quaeco:v:76:y:2020:i:c:p:270-277. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620167 .

    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.