IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/14158.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Short Sales and Trade Classification Algorithms

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Asquith
  • Rebecca Oman
  • Christopher Safaya

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that short sales are often misclassified as buyer-initiated by the Lee-Ready and other commonly used trade classification algorithms. This result is due in part to regulations which require short sales be executed on an uptick or zero-uptick. In addition, while the literature considers "immediacy premiums" in determining trade direction, it ignores the often larger borrowing premiums which short sellers must pay. Since short sales constitute approximately 30% of all trade volume on U.S. exchanges, these results are important to the empirical market microstructure literature as well as to measures that rely upon trade classification, such as the probability of informed trading (PIN) metric.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Asquith & Rebecca Oman & Christopher Safaya, 2008. "Short Sales and Trade Classification Algorithms," NBER Working Papers 14158, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14158
    Note: AP
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14158.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier Vergote, 2005. "How to Match Trades and Quotes for Nyse Stocks?," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces0510, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    2. Theissen, Erik, 2001. "A test of the accuracy of the Lee/Ready trade classification algorithm," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 147-165, June.
    3. Lee, Charles M C & Ready, Mark J, 1991. "Inferring Trade Direction from Intraday Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 733-746, June.
    4. Alexander, Gordon J. & Peterson, Mark A., 2008. "The effect of price tests on trader behavior and market quality: An analysis of Reg SHO," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 84-111, February.
    5. 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.
    6. Boehmer, Ekkehart & Grammig, Joachim & Theissen, Erik, 2007. "Estimating the probability of informed trading--does trade misclassification matter?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 26-47, February.
    7. Odders-White, Elizabeth R., 2000. "On the occurrence and consequences of inaccurate trade classification," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 259-286, August.
    8. Bessembinder, Hendrik, 2003. "Trade Execution Costs and Market Quality after Decimalization," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(4), pages 747-777, December.
    9. Bessembinder, Hendrik, 2003. "Issues in assessing trade execution costs," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 233-257, May.
    10. Finucane, Thomas J., 2000. "A Direct Test of Methods for Inferring Trade Direction from Intra-Day Data," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(4), pages 553-576, December.
    11. Ellis, Katrina & Michaely, Roni & O'Hara, Maureen, 2000. "The Accuracy of Trade Classification Rules: Evidence from Nasdaq," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(4), pages 529-551, December.
    12. Lee, Charles M. C. & Radhakrishna, Balkrishna, 2000. "Inferring investor behavior: Evidence from TORQ data," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 83-111, May.
    13. Aitken, Michael & Frino, Alex, 1996. "The accuracy of the tick test: Evidence from the Australian stock exchange," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(10), pages 1715-1729, December.
    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. Boehmer, Ekkehart & Huszar, Zsuzsa R. & Jordan, Bradford D., 2010. "The good news in short interest," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 80-97, April.
    2. Ben Omrane, Walid & Welch, Robert, 2016. "Tick test accuracy in foreign exchange ECN markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 135-152.
    3. Perlin, Marcelo & Brooks, Chris & Dufour, Alfonso, 2014. "On the performance of the tick test," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 42-50.
    4. Schultz, Paul & Shive, Sophie, 2010. "Mispricing of dual-class shares: Profit opportunities, arbitrage, and trading," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 524-549, December.

    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. Asquith, Paul & Oman, Rebecca & Safaya, Christopher, 2010. "Short sales and trade classification algorithms," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 157-173, February.
    2. Ben Omrane, Walid & Welch, Robert, 2016. "Tick test accuracy in foreign exchange ECN markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 135-152.
    3. Aktas, Osman Ulas & Kryzanowski, Lawrence, 2014. "Trade classification accuracy for the BIST," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 259-282.
    4. Boehmer, Ekkehart & Grammig, Joachim & Theissen, Erik, 2007. "Estimating the probability of informed trading--does trade misclassification matter?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 26-47, February.
    5. David Michayluk & Laurie Prather, 2008. "A Liquidity Motivated Algorithm for Discerning Trade Direction," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 12(1-2), pages 45-66, March-Jun.
    6. Jurkatis, Simon, 2022. "Inferring trade directions in fast markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    7. Frömmel, Michael & D'Hoore, Dick & Lampaert, Kevin, 2021. "The Accuracy of Trade Classification Systems on the Foreign Exchange Market: Evidence from the RUB/USD Market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    8. Yan, Yuxing & Zhang, Shaojun, 2014. "Quality of PIN estimates and the PIN-return relationship," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 137-149.
    9. Malay Dey & B. Radhakrishna, 2015. "Informed trading, institutional trading, and spread," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 39(2), pages 288-307, April.
    10. Donglian Ma & Pengxiang Zhai, 2021. "The Accuracy of the Tick Rule in the Bitcoin Market," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, May.
    11. Hwang, Lee-Seok & Lee, Woo-Jong & Lim, Seung-Yeon & Park, Kyung-Ho, 2013. "Does information risk affect the implied cost of equity capital? An analysis of PIN and adjusted PIN," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 148-167.
    12. Stoll, Hans R. & Schenzler, Christoph, 2006. "Trades outside the quotes: Reporting delay, trading option, or trade size?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 615-653, March.
    13. Peterson, Mark & Sirri, Erik, 2003. "Evaluation of the biases in execution cost estimation using trade and quote data," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 259-280, May.
    14. Chakrabarty, Bidisha & Pascual, Roberto & Shkilko, Andriy, 2015. "Evaluating trade classification algorithms: Bulk volume classification versus the tick rule and the Lee-Ready algorithm," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 52-79.
    15. Battalio, Robert H. & Lerman, Alina & Livnat, Joshua & Mendenhall, Richard R., 2012. "Who, if anyone, reacts to accrual information?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 205-224.
    16. Tanggaard, Carsten, 2003. "Errors in Trade Classification: Consequences and Remedies," Finance Working Papers 03-6, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Business Studies.
    17. Jurkatis, Simon, 2020. "Inferring trade directions in fast markets," Bank of England working papers 896, Bank of England.
    18. Torben G. Andersen & Oleg Bondarenko, 2015. "Assessing Measures of Order Flow Toxicity and Early Warning Signals for Market Turbulence," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(1), pages 1-54.
    19. Craig W. Holden & Stacey Jacobsen, 2014. "Liquidity Measurement Problems in Fast, Competitive Markets: Expensive and Cheap Solutions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1747-1785, August.
    20. Marcel Blais & Philip Protter, 2012. "Signing trades and an evaluation of the Lee–Ready algorithm," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:nbr:nberwo:14158. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.