IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ifs/cemmap/07-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Single stock circuit breakers on the London Stock Exchange: do they improve subsequent market quality?

Author

Listed:
  • James Brugler

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Oliver Linton

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Cambridge)

Abstract

This paper uses proprietary data to evaluate the efficacy of single-stock circuit breakers on the London Stock Exchange during July and August 2011. We exploit exogenous variation in the length of the uncrossing periods that follow a trading suspension to estimate the effect of auction length on market quality, measured by volume of trades, frequency of trading and the change in realized variance of returns. We also estimate the effect of a trading suspension in one FTSE-100 stock on the volume of trades, trading frequency and the change in realized variance of returns for other FTSE-100 stocks. We find that auction length has a significant detrimental effect on market quality for the suspended security when returns are negative but no discernible effect when returns are positive. We also find that trading suspensions help to ameliorate the spread of market microstructure noise and price inefficiency across securities during falling markets but the reverse is true during rising markets. Although trading suspensions may not improve the trading process within a particular security, they do play an important role preventing the spread of poor market quality across securities in falling markets and therefore can be effective tools for promoting market-wide stability.

Suggested Citation

  • James Brugler & Oliver Linton, 2014. "Single stock circuit breakers on the London Stock Exchange: do they improve subsequent market quality?," CeMMAP working papers CWP07/14, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  • Handle: RePEc:ifs:cemmap:07/14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/CWP071414.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, Charles M C & Ready, Mark J & Seguin, Paul J, 1994. "Volume, Volatility, and New York Stock Exchange Trading Halts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 183-214, March.
    2. Metzler, Adam, 2010. "On the first passage problem for correlated Brownian motion," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(5-6), pages 277-284, March.
    3. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2009. "Market Liquidity and Funding Liquidity," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2201-2238, June.
    4. Brennan, Michael J., 1986. "A theory of price limits in futures markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 213-233, June.
    5. Greenwald, Bruce C & Stein, Jeremy C, 1991. "Transactional Risk, Market Crashes, and the Role of Circuit Breakers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(4), pages 443-462, October.
    6. Kim, Yong H. & Yagüe, José & Yang, J. Jimmy, 2008. "Relative performance of trading halts and price limits: Evidence from the Spanish Stock Exchange," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 197-215.
    7. Lo, Andrew W. & MacKinlay, A. Craig, 1989. "The size and power of the variance ratio test in finite samples : A Monte Carlo investigation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 203-238, February.
    8. Ackert, Lucy F. & Church, Bryan & Jayaraman, Narayanan, 2001. "An experimental study of circuit breakers: The effects of mandated market closures and temporary halts on market behavior," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 185-208, April.
    9. Kenneth A. Kim & Jungsoo Park, 2010. "Why Do Price Limits Exist in Stock Markets? A Manipulation†Based Explanation," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(2), pages 296-318, March.
    10. Lorenzo Cappiello & Robert F. Engle & Kevin Sheppard, 2006. "Asymmetric Dynamics in the Correlations of Global Equity and Bond Returns," The Journal of Financial Econometrics, Society for Financial Econometrics, vol. 4(4), pages 537-572.
    11. Cho, David D. & Russell, Jeffrey & Tiao, George C. & Tsay, Ruey, 2003. "The magnet effect of price limits: evidence from high-frequency data on Taiwan Stock Exchange," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 133-168, February.
    12. Kate Phylaktis & Manolis Kavussanos & Gikas Manalis, 1999. "Price Limits and Stock Market Volatility in the Athens Stock Exchange," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 5(1), pages 69-84, March.
    13. Huang, Yen-Sheng & Fu, Tze-Wei & Ke, Mei-Chu, 2001. "Daily price limits and stock price behavior: evidence from the Taiwan stock exchange," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 263-288, July.
    14. Recep Bildik & Güzhan Gülay, 2006. "Are Price Limits Effective? Evidence From The Istanbul Stock Exchange," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 29(3), pages 383-403, September.
    15. Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Nanda, Vikram, 1998. "Leverage and Market Stability: The Role of Margin Rules and Price Limits," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(2), pages 179-210, April.
    16. Zhou, Bin, 1996. "High-Frequency Data and Volatility in Foreign-Exchange Rates," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 14(1), pages 45-52, January.
    17. Kim, Kenneth & Rhee, S Ghon, 1997. "Price Limit Performance: Evidence from the Tokyo Stock Exchange," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 885-899, June.
    18. Spiegel, Matthew & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2000. "Asymmetric Information and News Disclosure Rules," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 363-403, October.
    19. Jiang, Christine & McInish, Thomas & Upson, James, 2009. "The information content of trading halts," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 703-726, November.
    20. Shane A. Corwin & Marc L. Lipson, 2000. "Order Flow and Liquidity around NYSE Trading Halts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1771-1805, August.
    21. Heather E. Tookes, 2008. "Information, Trading, and Product Market Interactions: Cross‐sectional Implications of Informed Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(1), pages 379-413, February.
    22. F. M. Bandi & J. R. Russell, 2008. "Microstructure Noise, Realized Variance, and Optimal Sampling," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 339-369.
    23. Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1994. "Circuit Breakers and Market Volatility: A Theoretical Perspective," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 237-254, March.
    24. François Longin & Bruno Solnik, 2001. "Extreme Correlation of International Equity Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 649-676, April.
    25. Westerhoff, Frank, 2003. "Speculative markets and the effectiveness of price limits," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 493-508, December.
    26. Lauterbach, Beni & Ben-Zion, Uri, 1993. "Stock Market Crashes and the Performance of Circuit Breakers: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1909-1925, December.
    27. Goldstein, Michael A. & Kavajecz, Kenneth A., 2004. "Trading strategies during circuit breakers and extreme market movements," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 301-333, June.
    28. Patton, Andrew J., 2011. "Volatility forecast comparison using imperfect volatility proxies," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 160(1), pages 246-256, January.
    29. Gerety, Mason S & Mulherin, J Harold, 1992. "Trading Halts and Market Activity: An Analysis of Volume at the Open and the Close," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1765-1784, December.
    30. Kodres, Laura E & O'Brien, Daniel P, 1994. "The Existence of Pareto-Superior Price Limits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 919-932, September.
    31. 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.
    32. Lehmann, B.N., 1989. "Commentary: Volatility, Price Resolution, And The Effectiveness Of Price Limits," Papers t9, Columbia - Center for Futures Markets.
    33. Shane A. Corwin & Marc L. Lipson, 2000. "Order Flow and Liquidity around NYSE Trading Halts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1771-1801, August.
    34. Torben G. Andersen & Tim Bollerslev, 1998. "Deutsche Mark-Dollar Volatility: Intraday Activity Patterns, Macroeconomic Announcements, and Longer Run Dependencies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(1), pages 219-265, February.
    35. Andersen, Torben G. & Bollerslev, Tim & Cai, Jun, 2000. "Intraday and interday volatility in the Japanese stock market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 107-130, June.
    36. Hansen, Peter R. & Lunde, Asger, 2006. "Realized Variance and Market Microstructure Noise," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 24, pages 127-161, April.
    37. Chan, Soon Huat & Kim, Kenneth A. & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2005. "Price limit performance: evidence from transactions data and the limit order book," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 269-290, March.
    38. Deb, Saikat Sovan & Kalev, Petko S. & Marisetty, Vijaya B., 2010. "Are price limits really bad for equity markets?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2462-2471, October.
    39. Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1997. "The ex ante effects of trade halting rules on informed trading strategies and market liquidity," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 1-14.
    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. Sifat, Imtiaz Mohammad & Mohamad, Azhar, 2018. "Trading aggression when price limit hits are imminent: NARDL based intraday investigation of magnet effect," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 1-8.
    2. Leal, Sandrine Jacob & Napoletano, Mauro, 2019. "Market stability vs. market resilience: Regulatory policies experiments in an agent-based model with low- and high-frequency trading," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 15-41.
    3. Sifat, Imtiaz Mohammad & Mohamad, Azhar, 2020. "A survey on the magnet effect of circuit breakers in financial markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 138-151.
    4. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6ummnc8nko827b2luohnctekk7 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Floris Laly & Mikael Petitjean, 2020. "Mini flash crashes: Review, taxonomy and policy responses," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 251-271, July.
    6. Sandrine Jacob Leal & Mauro Napoletano, 2017. "Market Stability vs. Market Resilience: Regulatory Policies Experiments in an Agent-Based Model with Low- and High-Frequency Trading," Post-Print hal-01768876, HAL.
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3utlh0ehcn860pus6p2p683ade is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Brugler, James, 2015. "Into the light: dark pool trading and intraday market quality on the primary exchange," Bank of England working papers 545, Bank of England.
    9. Kun Li, 2019. "Do Circuit Breakers Impede Trading Behavior? A Study In Chinese Financial Market," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(05), pages 1-18, December.
    10. Imtiaz Mohammad Sifat & Azhar Mohamad, 2019. "Circuit breakers as market stability levers: A survey of research, praxis, and challenges," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(3), pages 1130-1169, July.

    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. James Brugler & Oliver Linton, 2014. "Circuit Breakers on the London Stock Exchange: Do they improve subsequent market quality?," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1453, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Imtiaz Mohammad Sifat & Azhar Mohamad, 2019. "Circuit breakers as market stability levers: A survey of research, praxis, and challenges," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(3), pages 1130-1169, July.
    3. Sifat, Imtiaz Mohammad & Mohamad, Azhar, 2020. "A survey on the magnet effect of circuit breakers in financial markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 138-151.
    4. Clapham, Benjamin & Gomber, Peter & Haferkorn, Martin & Panz, Sven, 2017. "Managing excess volatility: Design and effectiveness of circuit breakers," SAFE Working Paper Series 195, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    5. Kim, Yong H. & Yagüe, José & Yang, J. Jimmy, 2008. "Relative performance of trading halts and price limits: Evidence from the Spanish Stock Exchange," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 197-215.
    6. Farag, Hisham, 2013. "Price limit bands, asymmetric volatility and stock market anomalies: Evidence from emerging markets," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 85-97.
    7. Tang, Siyuan, 2023. "Price limit performance: New evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China's ChiNext market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. David Abad & Roberto Pascual, 2010. "Switching To A Temporary Call Auction In Times Of High Uncertainty," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 45-75, March.
    9. Wang, Steven Shuye & Xu, Kuan & Zhang, Hao, 2019. "A microstructure study of circuit breakers in the Chinese stock markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    10. Du, Yan & Liu, Qianqiu & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2006. "An Anatomy of the Magnet Effect: Evidence from the Korea Stock Exchange High-Frequency Data," CEI Working Paper Series 2005-17, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    11. Farag, Hisham, 2014. "The effectiveness of competing regulatory regimes and the switching effects: Evidence from an emerging market," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 136-147.
    12. Cheng Xiang & Jing Lu, 2023. "Magnet effects of circuit breakers in electronic order‐driven markets: Evidence from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 1450-1469, April.
    13. Daphne Yan Du & Qianqiu Liu & S. Ghon Rhee, 2009. "An Analysis of the Magnet Effect under Price Limits," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 9(1‐2), pages 83-110, March.
    14. Chan, Soon Huat & Kim, Kenneth A. & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2005. "Price limit performance: evidence from transactions data and the limit order book," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 269-290, March.
    15. 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).
    16. Leal, Sandrine Jacob & Napoletano, Mauro, 2019. "Market stability vs. market resilience: Regulatory policies experiments in an agent-based model with low- and high-frequency trading," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 15-41.
    17. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6ummnc8nko827b2luohnctekk7 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Carlos Castro & Diego A. Agudelo & Sergio Preciado, 2018. "Measuring the effectiveness of volatility auctions," Documentos de Trabajo CIEF 16988, Universidad EAFIT.
    19. Farag, Hisham, 2015. "The influence of price limits on overreaction in emerging markets: Evidence from the Egyptian stock market," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 190-199.
    20. Diego A. Agudelo & Sergio Preciado & Carlos Castro, 2018. "Measuring the effectiveness of volatility auctions," Documentos de Trabajo CIEF 16943, Universidad EAFIT.
    21. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3utlh0ehcn860pus6p2p683ade is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Cheoljun Eom & Steven J. Jordan & Woo‐Baik Lee & Jong Won Park, 2020. "Programs trades and trade regulation: An evidence of the Korean securities market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 44-66, January.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ifs:cemmap:07/14. 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: Emma Hyman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cmifsuk.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.