IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v34y2015icp210-234.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial intermediaries in the midst of market manipulation: Did they protect the fool or help the knave?

Author

Listed:
  • Atanasov, Vladimir
  • Davies, Ryan J.
  • Merrick, John J.

Abstract

We examine a fund manager's alleged manipulation of platinum and palladium futures settlement prices. Using benchmarks from parallel electronic markets, we find that the manager's market-on-close trading causes significant settlement price artificiality. Defying predictions that competition among floor traders should limit any artificiality, the artificiality increases in the second half of the alleged manipulation period. Between 35% and 52% of the latter-period artificiality is directly attributable to noncompetitive floor prices. Inflated floor volume contributes a similar proportion to artificiality via the exchange's trade-weighted settlement price formula. We estimate that floor counterparties reaped more than $6.0 million in excess profits.

Suggested Citation

  • Atanasov, Vladimir & Davies, Ryan J. & Merrick, John J., 2015. "Financial intermediaries in the midst of market manipulation: Did they protect the fool or help the knave?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 210-234.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:34:y:2015:i:c:p:210-234
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2015.07.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092911991500084X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2015.07.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aitken, Michael & Cumming, Douglas & Zhan, Feng, 2015. "High frequency trading and end-of-day price dislocation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 330-349.
    2. Christie, William G & Schultz, Paul H, 1994. "Why Do NASDAQ Market Makers Avoid Odd-Eighth Quotes?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1813-1840, December.
    3. Dutta, Prajit K & Madhavan, Ananth, 1997. "Competition and Collusion in Dealer Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 245-276, March.
    4. Lipson, Marc L., 2003. "Market microstructure and corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 377-384, September.
    5. James W. Friedman, 1971. "A Non-cooperative Equilibrium for Supergames," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(1), pages 1-12.
    6. Kluger, Brian D. & Wyatt, Steve B., 2002. "Preferencing, Internalization of Order Flow, and Tacit Collusion: Evidence from Experiments," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(3), pages 449-469, September.
    7. Khwaja, Asim Ijaz & Mian, Atif, 2005. "Unchecked intermediaries: Price manipulation in an emerging stock market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 203-241, October.
    8. Robert A. Jarrow, 2008. "Market Manipulation, Bubbles, Corners, and Short Squeezes," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Financial Derivatives Pricing Selected Works of Robert Jarrow, chapter 6, pages 105-130, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Hillion, Pierre & Suominen, Matti, 2004. "The manipulation of closing prices," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 351-375, October.
    10. Kumar, Praveen & Seppi, Duane J, 1992. "Futures Manipulation with "Cash Settlement."," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1485-1502, September.
    11. Cason, Timothy N, 2000. "The Opportunity for Conspiracy in Asset Markets Organized with Dealer Intermediaries," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(2), pages 385-416.
    12. Bernhardt, Dan & Davies, Ryan J., 2005. "Painting the tape: Aggregate evidence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 306-311, December.
    13. Craig Pirrong, 1996. "Market liquidity and depth on computerized and open outcry trading systems: A comparison of DTB and LIFFE bund contracts," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(5), pages 519-543, August.
    14. Kevin H. K. Cheng & Joseph K. W. Fung & Yiuman Tse, 2005. "How electronic trading affects bid‐ask spreads and arbitrage efficiency between index futures and options," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(4), pages 375-398, April.
    15. Abrantes-Metz, Rosa M. & Kraten, Michael & Metz, Albert D. & Seow, Gim S., 2012. "Libor manipulation?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 136-150.
    16. Mark M. Carhart & Ron Kaniel & David K. Musto & Adam V. Reed, 2002. "Leaning for the Tape: Evidence of Gaming Behavior in Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 661-693, April.
    17. Asani Sarkar & Michelle Tozzi, 1998. "Electronic trading on futures exchanges," Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 4(Jan).
    18. Allen, Franklin & Gale, Douglas, 1992. "Stock-Price Manipulation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(3), pages 503-529.
    19. Comerton-Forde, Carole & Putnins, Talis J., 2011. "Measuring closing price manipulation," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 135-158, April.
    20. Dagfinn Rime & Andreas Schrimpf, 2013. "The anatomy of the global FX market through the lens of the 2013 Triennial Survey," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    21. Agrawal, Anup & Cooper, Tommy, 2015. "Insider trading before accounting scandals," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 169-190.
    22. Rajesh K. Aggarwal & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Stock Market Manipulations," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(4), pages 1915-1954, July.
    23. Aitken, Michael & Cumming, Douglas & Zhan, Feng, 2015. "Exchange trading rules, surveillance and suspected insider trading," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 311-330.
    24. Xiaoyan Ni, Sophie & Pearson, Neil D. & Poteshman, Allen M., 2005. "Stock price clustering on option expiration dates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 49-87, October.
    25. Kumar, Praveen & Seppi, Duane J, 1994. "Information and Index Arbitrage," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67(4), pages 481-509, October.
    26. Carole Comerton-Forde & Tālis J. Putniņš, 2014. "Stock Price Manipulation: Prevalence and Determinants," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(1), pages 23-66.
    27. Haushalter, G. David & Heron, Randall A. & Lie, Erik, 2002. "Price uncertainty and corporate value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 271-286, July.
    28. 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.
    29. Back, Kerry & Zender, Jaime F, 1993. "Auctions of Divisible Goods: On the Rationale for the Treasury Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(4), pages 733-764.
    30. Bernile, Gennaro & Sulaeman, Johan & Wang, Qin, 2015. "Institutional trading during a wave of corporate scandals: “Perfect Payday”?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 191-209.
    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. Esen Onur & David Reiffen, 2018. "The effect of settlement rules on the incentive to Bang the Close," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(8), pages 841-864, August.
    2. Shaen Corbet & Yang (Greg) Hou & Yang Hu & Les Oxley, 2022. "We Reddit in a Forum: The Influence of Message Boards on Firm Stability," Review of Corporate Finance, now publishers, vol. 2(1), pages 151-190, March.
    3. Angelo Aspris & Sean Foley & Peter O'Neill, 2020. "Benchmarks in the spotlight: The impact on exchange traded markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(11), pages 1691-1710, November.
    4. Ouyang, Liangyi & Cao, Bolong, 2020. "Selective pump-and-dump: The manipulation of their top holdings by Chinese mutual funds around quarter-ends," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    5. Chan, Shu Hui & Huang, Yu Chuan & Lin, Sheng-Min, 2020. "Market transparency and closing price behavior on month-end days: Evidence from Taiwan," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    6. Elena Valentina Ţilică & Victor Dragotă & Camelia Delcea & Răzvan Ioan Tătaru, 2024. "Portfolio management under capital market frictions: a grey clustering approach," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-36, December.
    7. Cumming, Douglas & Dannhauser, Robert & Johan, Sofia, 2015. "Financial market misconduct and agency conflicts: A synthesis and future directions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 150-168.
    8. Aitken, Michael & Cumming, Douglas & Zhan, Feng, 2015. "Exchange trading rules, surveillance and suspected insider trading," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 311-330.
    9. Cumming, Douglas & Ji, Shan & Peter, Rejo & Tarsalewska, Monika, 2020. "Market manipulation and innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    10. Kadıoğlu, Eyüp & Frömmel, Michael, 2022. "Manipulation in the bond market and the role of investment funds: Evidence from an emerging market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Robert Jarrow & Scott Fung & Shih-Chuan Tsai, 2018. "An empirical investigation of large trader market manipulation in derivatives markets," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 331-374, October.
    12. Rashid Zaman & Nader Atawnah & Muhammad Nadeem & Stephen Bahadar & Irfan Haider Shakri, 2022. "Do liquid assets lure managers? Evidence from corporate misconduct," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7-8), pages 1425-1453, July.
    13. Douglas Cumming & Sofia Johan & Denis Schweizer, 2017. "Information systems, agency problems, and fraud," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 421-424, June.

    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. Cumming, Douglas & Dannhauser, Robert & Johan, Sofia, 2015. "Financial market misconduct and agency conflicts: A synthesis and future directions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 150-168.
    2. Kadıoğlu, Eyüp & Frömmel, Michael, 2022. "Manipulation in the bond market and the role of investment funds: Evidence from an emerging market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Cumming, Douglas & Ji, Shan & Peter, Rejo & Tarsalewska, Monika, 2020. "Market manipulation and innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Robert Jarrow & Scott Fung & Shih-Chuan Tsai, 2018. "An empirical investigation of large trader market manipulation in derivatives markets," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 331-374, October.
    5. Christos Alexakis & Vasileios Pappas & Emmanouil Skarmeas, 2021. "Market abuse under different close price determination mechanisms: A European case," Post-Print hal-03182927, HAL.
    6. Aitken, Michael & Cumming, Douglas & Zhan, Feng, 2015. "Exchange trading rules, surveillance and suspected insider trading," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 311-330.
    7. Tālis J. Putniņš, 2012. "Market Manipulation: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 952-967, December.
    8. Tsung-Yu Hsieh, 2015. "Information disclosure and price manipulation during the pre-closing session: evidence from an order-driven market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(43), pages 4670-4684, September.
    9. Carole Comerton-Forde & Tālis J. Putniņš, 2014. "Stock Price Manipulation: Prevalence and Determinants," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(1), pages 23-66.
    10. Carol Osler & Alasdair Turnbull, 2016. "Dealer Trading at the Fix," Working Papers 101R, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School, revised Jun 2017.
    11. Michael Aitken & Frederick Harris & Shan Ji, 2015. "A Worldwide Examination of Exchange Market Quality: Greater Integrity Increases Market Efficiency," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 147-170, November.
    12. Itzhak Ben‐David & Francesco Franzoni & Augustin Landier & Rabih Moussawi, 2013. "Do Hedge Funds Manipulate Stock Prices?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(6), pages 2383-2434, December.
    13. Titman, Sheridan & Wei, Chishen & Zhao, Bin, 2022. "Corporate actions and the manipulation of retail investors in China: An analysis of stock splits," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 762-787.
    14. Aitken, Michael & Cumming, Douglas & Zhan, Feng, 2015. "High frequency trading and end-of-day price dislocation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 330-349.
    15. Yang, Jinyu & Dong, Dayong & Cao, Jiawei, 2024. "Seemingly manipulated anomaly: Evidence from corporate site visits," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    16. Eray GEMICI & Mehmet CIHANGIR & Emre YAKUT, 2017. "Islem Bazli Manipulasyon: Turkiye Ornegi," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 17(3), pages 369-380.
    17. Alexakis, Christos & Pappas, Vasileios & Skarmeas, Emmanouil, 2021. "Market abuse under different close price determination mechanisms: A European case," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Foley, Sean & Kwan, Amy & Low, Siyuan Adrian & Svec, Jiri, 2018. "The rise before the close: Underwriter trading around SEOs," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 221-235.
    19. Liu, Jie & Wu, Chonglin & Yuan, Lin & Liu, Jia, 2022. "Opening price manipulation and its value influences," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Alfred Ma, 2022. "Profitability of technical trading strategies under market manipulation," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Market manipulation; Bang the close; NYMEX; Futures contracts; Platinum; Floor trading;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies

    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:eee:corfin:v:34:y:2015:i:c:p:210-234. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    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.