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Bid–ask spread and liquidity searching behaviour of informed investors in option markets

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  • Bernales, Alejandro
  • Cañón, Carlos
  • Verousis, Thanos

Abstract

We show evidence of a liquidity searching behaviour of informed investors in option listings, which was also found by Collin-Dufresne and Fos (2015) using stock markets. Nevertheless, and differently from Collin-Dufresne and Fos (2015), we find that the option bid–ask spread may be still a good proxy for informed trading, despite of the liquidity searching behaviour of informed agents. We show an upward trend in the option bid–ask spread after option introductions (as informed traders avoid trading in initial periods after listing dates due to the low liquidity environment), which is steeper for options with high chances of information asymmetries.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernales, Alejandro & Cañón, Carlos & Verousis, Thanos, 2018. "Bid–ask spread and liquidity searching behaviour of informed investors in option markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 96-102.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:25:y:2018:i:c:p:96-102
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2017.10.025
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bae, Kwangil & Lee, Soonhee, 2022. "Prices of derivative warrants considering their market characteristics and short-selling costs of underlying assets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    2. Alejandro Bernales & Thanos Verousis & Nikolaos Voukelatos & Mengyu Zhang, 2020. "What do we know about individual equity options?," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 67-91, January.
    3. Yossi Shvimer & Avi Herbon, 2022. "Non-tradability interval for heterogeneous rational players in the option markets," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 133-157, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stock options; Option listings; Informed trading;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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