Portfolio and Security Analysis Commons^™

Security Analysts And Capital Market Anomalies, Guo Li, Frank Weikai Li, K.C. John Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine whether analysts use information in well-known stock return anomalies when making recommendations. We find results contrary to the common view that analysts are sophisticated information intermediaries who help improve market efficiency. Specifically, when analysts make more favorable recommendations to stocks classified as overvalued, these stocks tend to have particularly large negative abnormal returns ex post. Moreover, analysts whose recommendations are more aligned with anomaly signals are more skilled and elicit greater recommendation announcement returns. Our results suggest that analysts' biased recommendations could be a source of market frictions that impede the efficient correction of mispricing.

Cryptocurrencies: Their Current Validity And Future As Currency And As A Part Of An Investment Strategy, Austin R. Johnson

Senior Theses

This paper examines the current and future prospects of cryptocurrencies with a focus on the most well-known and highest valued cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Specifically, it will address how Bitcoin can be utilized as a currency and as part of an investment strategy and whether its utilization makes financial sense now and will in the future. The paper showcases the past behavior of Bitcoin, how the Bitcoin system functions, how Bitcoin acts as a currency, how Bitcoin can be used as an investment asset, and why it will continue to be employed as such in the future. This paper will show that ...

Reflective Practice Series: Selected Instructional Models Using Synchronous Video Conferencing Software, Martin W. Sivula

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

With the vast array of resources available to instructors, one would think that instruction and teaching would yield success for all learners. Now, well into the 21^st century has much changed in the classroom? Certainly, movable desks and chairs, advanced audio and visual equipment, and a plethora of all types of technologies which might be able to enhance training and education. Over the last several decades research on individualized instruction, cognitive science, educational psychology, and multimedia instruction (to name a few) have permeated the literature on instruction. With all the research and the vast array of studies on improving ...

Monitoring From Afar: Do Foreign Institutional Investors Deter Insider Trading?, Claire Yurong Hong, Frank Weikai Li, Qifei Zhu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines the disciplinary effect of foreign institutional investors on opportunistic insider trading. Using a novel global insider trading data set containing 35,557 firms from 26 countries over the period 2000-2015, we find that greater foreign institutional ownership significantly reduces the profitability of insider trading, above and beyond the effect of domestic institutional ownership. Using the exogenous variation in foreign institutional ownership induced by MSCI index inclusion, we show that the effect is causal. The impact of foreign investors is stronger in countries with weak insider trading regulations and poor institutional environments, and operates mainly through the monitoring ...

Transaction Cost Optimization For Online Portfolio Selection, Bin Li, Jialei Wang, Dingjiang Huang, Steven C. H. Hoi

Research Collection School Of Information Systems

To improve existing online portfolio selection strategies in the case of non-zero transaction costs, we propose a novel framework named Transaction Cost Optimization (TCO). The TCO framework incorporates the L1 norm of the difference between two consecutive allocations together with the principles of maximizing expected log return. We further solve the formulation via convex optimization, and obtain two closed-form portfolio update formulas, which follow the same principle as Proportional Portfolio Rebalancing (PPR) in industry. We empirically evaluate the proposed framework using four commonly used data-sets. Although these data-sets do not consider delisted firms and are thus subject to survival bias ...

Disclosure Of Pending Lawsuits And Bond Terms, Yun Lou

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

I examine the effect of the disclosure of pendinglawsuits in 10-K/Q filings on the contractual terms of newly issued bonds. Ifind that firms’ decision to disclose pending lawsuits and the amount ofdisclosed information (i.e., the level of disclosure) have opposite effects.Specifically, firms that disclose a higher proportion of their pending lawsuitsface higher yields and are more likely to include default clauses pertaining tocourt judgments in the bond prospectuses. However, within the subsample offirms that disclose their lawsuits, I find that firms with a higher level of disclosureregarding their pending lawsuits are rewarded with lower yields. This evidencesuggests ...

Passive Investors, Jill E. Fisch, Asaf Hamdani, Steven Davidoff Solomon

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

The increasing percentage of the modern capital markets owned by passive investors – index funds and ETFs – has received extensive media and academic attention. This growing ownership concentration as well as the potential power of passive investors to affect both corporate governance and operational decision-making at their portfolio firms has led some commentators to call for passive investors to be subject to increased regulation and even disenfranchisement. These reactions fail to account for the institutional structure of passive investors and the market context in which they operate. Specifically, this literature assumes that passive investors compete primarily on cost and that, as ...

Is Sell-Side Research More Valuable In Bad Times?, Roger Loh, René Stulz

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Because uncertainty is high in bad times, investors find it harder to assess firm prospects and, hence, should value analyst output more. However, higher uncertainty makes analysts’ tasks harder so it is unclear if analyst output is more valuable in bad times. We find that, in bad times, analyst revisions have a larger stock-price impact, earnings forecast errors per unit of uncertainty fall, reports are more frequent and longer, and the impact of analyst output increases more for harder-to-value firms. These results are consistent with analysts working harder and investors relying more on analysts in bad times.

The Competitive Landscape Of High-Frequency Trading Firms, Ekkehart Boehmer, Dan Li, Gideon Saar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine product differentiation in the high-frequency trading (HFT) industry, where the “products” are secretive proprietary trading strategies. We demonstrate how principal component analysis can be used to detect underlying strategies that are common to multiple HFT firms, and show that there are three product categories with distinct attributes. We study how HFT competition in each product category impacts the market environment, presenting evidence that indicates how it influences the short-horizon volatility of stocks as well as the viability of trading venues.

Studies Of Financial Analysts: Over-Optimism, Investment Value And Herding Behavior, Tao Li

2018

Financial research analysts are experts who analyze the financial markets and company fundamentals to make investment recommendations. Based on the US analysts’ stock recommendations, I examine the issue of financial analysts’ over-optimism, the investment value of analysts’ stock recommendations, and analysts’ leader-follower herding behavior. The goal of this thesis is to enhance the understanding of the roles that financial analysts play in promoting information transmission in the financial market. The study of analysts’ over-optimism focuses on the market reaction asymmetry. Consistent with analysts being over-optimistic, the financial market responds more strongly to analysts’ unfavorable recommendations than to their corresponding favorable ...

Buy-And-Hold Versus Momentum Investment Strategies During Financial Crises, Howard Ly

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

In his article, “Where the Black Swans Hide & The 10 Best Days Myth,” Mebane Faber found that most of the best and worst trading days occur when the market is already declining. This phenomenon is due to increased volatility during bear markets, a result of investors’ emotions. Emotions, particularly fear and greed, lead to irrational trading behavior, resulting in rampant speculation or panic selling. Ideally, an investor would be in the market for the above-mentioned best days and be out of the market during the worst days. However, the difficulty in predicting these important dates have led some investors to ...

Cryptocurrency: The Argument For Its Allocation Within The Traditional Investor's Portfolio, Nicholas Costanza

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research explores the significance of cryptocurrencies upon the “traditional” investor’s portfolio, particularly elaborating on the potential returns and advocating for its allocation within any balanced (or diversified) portfolio. Cryptocurrencies are a relatively new asset and are still considered to be extremely risky. They are characterized by ever-fluctuating prices, ongoing government regulation, and overall market skepticism. However, the potential of major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Litecoin) to produce major returns cannot be easily ignored. This paper builds upon the research of those in academia, as well as highly respected investors. The hope is to outline both the pros ...

Are Bond Ratings Informative? Evidence From Regulatory Regime Changes, Louis H. Ederington, Choo Yong, Jeremy Goh, Yen Teik Lee, Lisa Yang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The recent Dodd-Frank Act (Section 939B) enacted in 2010 repeals credit rating agencies’ (CRAs) exemption from Regulation Fair Disclosure. We test whether CRAs continue to provide new information to the market after the repeal. We find that the significant pre-repeal stock price responses to rating changes disappear after the regime change. Bond price reactions however remain significant. These results are even more significant at the investment-speculative boundary. Our evidence suggests that CRAs serve as a conduit for transmitting private information before the repeal. It also shows that regulatory constraint is a channel by which credit ratings affect cost of financing.

Insider Trading And The Stock Act Amendment, Josh Wilson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

On April 2, 2012, Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. The purpose of this legislation was to enhance transparency among the financial investments of Congress members, congressional staffers, and other government employees. One year later, an amendment was passed which no longer required staffers or government employees to publish their holdings online citing “national security”. Treating this event as a natural experiment, I examine whether insider trading occurred in the days leading up to and through the signing of the law by President Obama. In general, I find that portfolios of the 50 most commonly held ...

Strategic Implications Of Blockchain, William R. Adams

Marriott Student Review

This thesis introduces blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and discusses how best to conceptualize it relative to other technologies. Following an explanation of the fundamentals of blockchain, also known as the distributed ledger, I identify the characteristics of the technology. Building upon blockchain’s inherent strengths and limitations, I explore potential business applications of blockchain. Finally, I recommend that leaders continue to track the development and adoption of blockchain technology, even if they decide that implementing it does not align with their organization’s strategy at present.

Buzzwords, Evan D. Poff

Marriott Student Review

This feature will explain the following buzzwords:

• Blockchain
• Cryptocurrency
• Work-Life Integration
• Passive Equities
• Risk-Adjusted Returns

Ursinus College Investment Club Newsletter, Spring 2018, Haley Sturla, Johnathan Myers, Scott Deacle

Investment Fund Newsletter

Inside this issue:

A Note to Our Readers and Donor Recognition

Quantitative Strategies with Matt Yuros ’12, TFS Capital

Inside Institutional Investments with Michael Fleming ’97, Vanguard

Bitcoin: Is It A Bubble? with Dr. William Luther, Kenyon College

Portfolio Performance, the First Year

Looking Forward

Glossary Of Business Evidence, Paul C. Boyd

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Shaping Our World For A Better Tomorrow: Sustainable Investing, Esg, And Industry Insight, Anna M. Ballate

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sustainable investing is a relatively new field in the world of finance and banking. Even though there is tremendous growth in sustainable investments over the past few years, it is still a niche market that requires more transparency, standards, and incentives. Switzerland has become one of the leading countries for sustainable finance, exhibiting a growth in sustainable investments under management. Despite the vast amount of research and development on sustainable investing, there is still much confusion and negative perception in the professional banking world about the topic. This study is designed to fill the gap between the academic rhetoric behind ...

Are We There Yet, Impact Investing?, Manqi Shi

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Impact investing has been an evolving field for the past ten years. More and more institutional investors are looking to change their investment approaches to impact investing. Academics, institutions, and international organizations are creating reports and publishing research on the impact investing field, tracking its growing progress. Without any incidents thus far, impact investing is an industry that is about to burst. A retrospective and internal analysis of the field is needed in order to grow at a better and faster pace. This paper is attempting to fill a hole in the information about impact investing. It provides a comprehensive ...