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Asymmetric Trading Costs Prior to Earnings Announcements: Implications for Price Discovery and Returns

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  • TRAVIS L. JOHNSON
  • ERIC C. SO

Abstract

We show that the cost of trading on negative news, relative to positive news, increases before earnings announcements. Our evidence suggests that this asymmetry is due to financial intermediaries reducing their exposure to announcement risks by providing liquidity asymmetrically. This asymmetry creates a predictable upward bias in prices that increases preannouncement, and subsequently reverses, confounding short‐window announcement returns as measures of earnings news and risk premia. These findings provide an alternative explanation for asymmetric return reactions to firms' earnings news, and help explain puzzling prior evidence that announcement risk premia precede the actual announcements. Our study informs methods for research centering on earnings announcements and offers a possible explanation for patterns in returns around anticipated periods of heightened inventory risks, including alternative firm‐level, industry‐level, and macroeconomic information events.

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  • Travis L. Johnson & Eric C. So, 2018. "Asymmetric Trading Costs Prior to Earnings Announcements: Implications for Price Discovery and Returns," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 217-263, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:56:y:2018:i:1:p:217-263
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12189
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    3. Chan, Kam Fong & Marsh, Terry, 2022. "Asset pricing on earnings announcement days," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 1022-1042.
    4. Khrystyna Bochkay & Stan Markov & Musa Subasi & Eric Weisbrod, 2022. "The Roles of Data Providers and Analysts in the Production, Dissemination, and Pricing of Street Earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1695-1740, December.
    5. Neilson, Jed J., 2022. "Investor information gathering and the resolution of uncertainty," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    6. Kim, Junwoo & Kim, Robert & Kim, Sangwan, 2020. "Does financial statement comparability mitigate delayed trading volume before earnings announcements?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 62-75.
    7. Xiao, Xijuan & Yamamoto, Ryuichi, 2024. "Overnight earnings announcements and preopening price discovery," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Aytekin Ertan & Stephen A. Karolyi & Peter W. Kelly & Robert Stoumbos, 2022. "Earnings announcement return extrapolation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 185-230, March.
    9. Gregory Weitzner, 2023. "The Term Structure of Short Selling Costs," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(6), pages 2125-2161.
    10. David Veenman & Patrick Verwijmeren, 2022. "The Earnings Expectations Game and the Dispersion Anomaly," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 3129-3149, April.
    11. Vincent Grégoire & Charles Martineau, 2022. "How is Earnings News Transmitted to Stock Prices?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 261-297, March.
    12. Hyunkwon Cho & Sunhwa Choi & Robert Kim, 2023. "Less timely earnings announcements and voluntary disclosure," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3-4), pages 524-564, March.
    13. Bekjarovski, Filip, 2019. "Active investing," Other publications TiSEM 7636da9d-f63e-451a-ba78-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Jiang, Danling & Norris, Dylan & Sun, Lin, 2021. "Weather, institutional investors and earnings news," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    15. Kruger, Samuel, 2018. "Disagreement and Liquidity," SocArXiv mfx6w, Center for Open Science.
    16. Kevin C. Smith & Eric C. So, 2022. "Measuring Risk Information," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 375-426, May.
    17. Nagar, Venky & Schoenfeld, Jordan & Wellman, Laura, 2019. "The effect of economic policy uncertainty on investor information asymmetry and management disclosures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 36-57.
    18. S. P. Kothari & Charles Wasley, 2019. "Commemorating the 50‐Year Anniversary of Ball and Brown (1968): The Evolution of Capital Market Research over the Past 50 Years," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(5), pages 1117-1159, December.

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