IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/cfripp/cfri-08-2017-0193.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The informativeness of short sellers: an insider’s perspective

Author

Listed:
  • George Gao
  • Qingzhong Ma
  • David Ng

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine whether corporate insiders extract information from activity of outsiders, specifically the short sellers. Design/methodology/approach - Using portfolio approach and Fama-MacBeth regressions, this study examines the relation between short interest and subsequent insider trading activities. Findings - The following results are reported. First, there is a strong inverse relation between short selling and subsequent insider trading, which is partially due to common private information and same target firm characteristics. Second, insiders extract information from shorts. This information extraction effect is more pronounced for firms whose insiders have stronger incentives to extract shorts information (insider purchases, higher short sale constraints, and better information environments). Third, during the September 2008 shorting ban, the information extraction affect disappeared among the large banned firms, whose shorting activities were distorted. Research limitations/implications - The findings contradict the of-cited accusations corporate executives hold against short sellers. Instead, corporate insiders appear to trade in the same direction as suggested by shorting activities. Practical implications - Among the vocal critics of short sellers are corporate insiders, who allege that short sellers beat down their stock prices. Many corporations even engage in stock repurchases to show confidence that the stock will perform well going forward despite the short sellers’ actions. This paper’s analysis on their personal portfolios suggests the other way around. Originality/value - By focusing on how corporate insider trading is related to shorts information, this paper sheds new light on whether corporate decisions convey the true information the corporate insiders possess.

Suggested Citation

  • George Gao & Qingzhong Ma & David Ng, 2018. "The informativeness of short sellers: an insider’s perspective," China Finance Review International, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(4), pages 354-386, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:cfripp:cfri-08-2017-0193
    DOI: 10.1108/CFRI-08-2017-0193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/CFRI-08-2017-0193/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/CFRI-08-2017-0193/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/CFRI-08-2017-0193?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Zeguang & Hou, Keqiang & Zhang, Chao, 2021. "The impacts of circuit breakers on China's stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Liu, Xiaojun & Wang, Li & Dai, Yunhao, 2023. "Capital market liberalization and opportunistic insider sales: Evidence from China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Gao, Ya & Han, Xing & Xiong, Xiong, 2021. "Loss from the chasing of MAX stocks: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    4. Yongsheng Yi & Feng Ma & Dengshi Huang & Yaojie Zhang, 2019. "Interest rate level and stock return predictability," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 506-522, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Insider trading; Short interest; Short selling ban; G12; G14; G18;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:eme:cfripp:cfri-08-2017-0193. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.