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Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Portfolio and Security Analysis

Uncertainty

Publication Year

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Full-Text Articles in Business

Is Sell-Side Research More Valuable In Bad Times?, Roger Loh, René M. Stulz Jun 2018

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


Shackling Short Sellers: The 2008 Shorting Ban, Ekkehart Boehmer, Charles M. Jones, Xiaoyan Zhang Jun 2013

Shackling Short Sellers: The 2008 Shorting Ban, Ekkehart Boehmer, Charles M. Jones, Xiaoyan Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In September 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) temporarily banned most short sales in nearly 1,000 financial stocks. We examine the ban's effect on market quality, shorting activity, the aggressiveness of short sellers, and stock prices. The ban's effects are concentrated in larger stocks; there is little effect on firms in the lower half of the size distribution. Although shorting activity drops by about 77% in large-cap stocks, stock prices appear unaffected by the ban. All but the smallest quartile of firms subject to the ban suffer a severe degradation in market quality.


Forecast Accuracy Uncertainty And Momentum, Bing Han, Dong Hong, Mitchell Craig Warachka Jun 2009

Forecast Accuracy Uncertainty And Momentum, Bing Han, Dong Hong, Mitchell Craig Warachka

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We demonstrate that stock price momentum and earnings momentum can result from uncertainty surrounding the accuracy of cash flow forecasts. Our model has multiple information sources issuing cash flow forecasts for a stock. The investor combines these forecasts into an aggregate cash flow estimate that has minimal mean-squared forecast error. This aggregate estimate weights each cash flow forecast by the estimated accuracy of its issuer, which is obtained from their past forecast errors. Momentum arises from the investor gradually learning about the relative accuracy of the information sources and updating their weights. Empirical tests validate the model's prediction of stronger …


Momentum And Informed Trading, A. Hameed, Dong Hong, Mitchell Craig Warachka Aug 2008

Momentum And Informed Trading, A. Hameed, Dong Hong, Mitchell Craig Warachka

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Consistent with the predictions of Wang (1994), we document that firm-specific informed trading is an important determinant of price momentum. The stronger return continuation in stocks with more informed trading cannot be explained by cross-sectional differences in uncertainty proxies such as analyst forecast dispersion, analyst coverage, idiosyncratic return volatility, and size. The relationship between informed trading and return continuation is also not attributable to cross-sectional differences in liquidity. Instead, our evidence emphasizes the role of price discovery in generating short-term price momentum.