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Informed trading, trading strategies and the information content of trading volume: Evidence from the Taiwan index options market

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  • Hsieh, Wen-liang G.
  • He, Huei-Ru

Abstract

This paper examines the predictive ability of index option put-call volume on next-day index movements in the Taiwan market. We find that foreign institutional investors are the most informed traders, with their predictive ability being more apparent in a downward market. When engaging in informed trading, foreign institutional investors tend to use out-of-the-money options to achieve high leverage, along with medium-term options to obtain large delta exposure and low theta risk, whilst also sacrificing liquidity by forgoing the use of short-term options. The predictive ability of foreign institutional investors is found to be significantly enhanced on days with important macroeconomic news, thereby indicating their superior interpretative ability of publicly accessible information. Based upon their long-lived informational advantage, foreign institutional investors will tend to engage in informed trading using limit orders and medium-sized trades in order to camouflage their information.

Suggested Citation

  • Hsieh, Wen-liang G. & He, Huei-Ru, 2014. "Informed trading, trading strategies and the information content of trading volume: Evidence from the Taiwan index options market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 187-215.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:31:y:2014:i:c:p:187-215
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intfin.2014.03.012
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    2. Chune Young Chung & Yunjae Lee & Doojin Ryu, 2017. "Do Domestic Institutional Trades Exacerbate Information Asymmetry? Evidence from the Korean Stock Market," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 24(4), pages 309-322, December.
    3. Doojin Ryu & Heejin Yang, 2018. "The directional information content of options volumes," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(12), pages 1533-1548, December.
    4. Yang, Heejin & Kutan, Ali M. & Ryu, Doojin, 2019. "Volatility information trading in the index options market: An intraday analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 412-426.
    5. Chune Young Chung & Doojin Ryu & Kainan Wang & Blerina Bela Zykaj, 2018. "Optionable Stocks and Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 390-412, March.
    6. Lin, William T. & Tsai, Shih-Chuan & Zheng, Zhenlong & Qiao, Shuai, 2018. "Retrieving aggregate information from option volume," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 220-232.
    7. Li, Wei-Xuan & French, Joseph J. & Chen, Clara Chia-Sheng, 2017. "Informed trading in S&P index options? Evidence from the 2008 financial crisis," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 40-65.
    8. Lee, Yen-Hsien & Wang, David K., 2016. "Information content of investor trading behavior: Evidence from Taiwan index options market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 149-160.
    9. Webb, Robert I. & Ryu, Doojin & Ryu, Doowon & Han, Joongho, 2016. "The price impact of futures trades and their intraday seasonality," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 80-98.
    10. Lee, Jaeram & Ryu, Doojin & Yang, Heejin, 2021. "Does vega-neutral options trading contain information?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 294-314.
    11. Chen, Ching-Lung & Weng, Pei-Yu & Chien, Chu-Yang, 2018. "Qualified foreign institutional investor ownership deregulation and the restatement of financial reports --- empirical findings from Taiwan," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 465-485.
    12. Doojin Ryu & Jinyoung Yu, 2021. "Informed options trading around holidays," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(5), pages 658-685, May.
    13. Rajesh Mohnot, 2020. "Examining Granger Causality in the Behavioral Reactions of Institutional Investors— Evidence from India," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(04), pages 1-21, January.
    14. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Index options; Options volume; Informed trading; Foreign institutional investors; Taiwan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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