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Contracts for dummies? The performance of investors in contracts for difference

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  • Adrian D. Lee
  • Shan Choy

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="acfi12018-abs-0001" xml:lang="en"> Investors widely use contracts for difference (CFDs) to leverage and short sell underlying financial assets. We investigate the after cost performance of investors in Australian Securities Exchange listed share CFDs, and find that market order CFD trades earn small positive returns at the daily horizon, with negative returns reported for one month to one year horizons due to financing costs. Market orders also net sell positions, which suggests that investors use CFDs for shorting opportunities. Overall, we find that liquidity demanders in CFDs obtain favourable execution, which is inconsistent with the view that CFDs are used by naive individuals.

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  • Adrian D. Lee & Shan Choy, 2014. "Contracts for dummies? The performance of investors in contracts for difference," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 54(3), pages 965-997, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:54:y:2014:i:3:p:965-997
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    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Oehler & Julian Schneider, 2022. "Gambling with lottery stocks?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(6), pages 477-503, October.
    2. Douglas Foster, F. & Lee, Adrian D. & Liu, Wai-Man, 2019. "CFDs, forwards, futures and the cost-of-carry," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 183-198.
    3. Petar Peshev, 2021. "Analyzing CFD Retail Investors' Performance in a Post MiFID II Environment," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 53-73.

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