IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v37y2013i11p4337-4352.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The efficacy of regulatory intervention: Evidence from the distribution of informed option trading

Author

Listed:
  • Anderson, Ronald C.
  • Reeb, David M.
  • Zhang, Yuzhao
  • Zhao, Wanli

Abstract

A substantive body of equity-market academic research documents an extensive range of costs arising from the SEC’s October 2000 adoption of strictures on selective disclosure and insider trading; suggesting an unusual outcome, specifically, an increase in informed trading. We investigate the efficacy of the SEC’s regulations by examining informed trading in an attractive setting for exploiting private information; the options market. Using data on the S&P 1500 industrial firms, our analysis indicates that about 38% of firms exhibited symptoms of informed option trading prior to regulatory intervention. After regulatory intervention, we observe that only 19% of firms show symptoms of informed trading. In additional testing of ADR firms – explicitly exempt from complying with Reg FD, we find no evidence of a change in informed option trading from pre- to post-regulation; suggesting that the SEC’s strictures on US firms led a to a significant reduction in informed option trading. Notably, our proxies for large shareholder and financial analyst access are associated with the largest decreases in informed option trading. In developing a unique measure of informed trading based on option market data, we provide evidence on the efficacy of security regulation in limiting informed trading.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderson, Ronald C. & Reeb, David M. & Zhang, Yuzhao & Zhao, Wanli, 2013. "The efficacy of regulatory intervention: Evidence from the distribution of informed option trading," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4337-4352.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:37:y:2013:i:11:p:4337-4352
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.07.037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426613003129
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.07.037?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. Francis, Jennifer & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wang, Xin, 2006. "Re-examining the effects of regulation fair disclosure using foreign listed firms to control for concurrent shocks," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 271-292, September.
    2. Warren Bailey & Haitao Li & Connie X. Mao & Rui Zhong, 2003. "Regulation Fair Disclosure and Earnings Information: Market, Analyst, and Corporate Responses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2487-2514, December.
    3. João F. Gomes & Amir Yaron & Lu Zhang, 2006. "Asset Pricing Implications of Firms' Financing Constraints," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(4), pages 1321-1356.
    4. Baljit Sidhu & Tom Smith & Robert E. Whaley & Richard H. Willis, 2008. "Regulation Fair Disclosure and the Cost of Adverse Selection," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 697-728, June.
    5. Jana P. Fidrmuc & Marc Goergen & Luc Renneboog, 2006. "Insider Trading, News Releases, and Ownership Concentration," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2931-2973, December.
    6. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp485 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Back, Kerry, 1993. "Asymmetric Information and Options," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(3), pages 435-472.
    8. Jarrow, Robert, 1986. "The Relationship between Arbitrage and First Order Stochastic Dominance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(4), pages 915-921, September.
    9. Robert M. Costrell & Glenn C. Loury, 2004. "Distribution of Ability and Earnings in a Hierarchical Job Assignment Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1322-1363, December.
    10. Asquith, Paul & Pathak, Parag A. & Ritter, Jay R., 2005. "Short interest, institutional ownership, and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 243-276, November.
    11. Partha S. Mohanram & Shyam V. Sunder, 2006. "How Has Regulation FD Affected the Operations of Financial Analysts?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 491-525, June.
    12. Acharya, Viral V. & Johnson, Timothy C., 2007. "Insider trading in credit derivatives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 110-141, April.
    13. Bettis, J. Carr & Bizjak, John M. & Lemmon, Michael L., 2001. "Managerial Ownership, Incentive Contracting, and the Use of Zero-Cost Collars and Equity Swaps by Corporate Insiders," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 345-370, September.
    14. Jun Pan & Allen M. Poteshman, 2006. "The Information in Option Volume for Future Stock Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 871-908.
    15. Huddart, Steven & Lang, Mark, 2003. "Information distribution within firms: evidence from stock option exercises," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-3), pages 3-31, January.
    16. Chakravarty, Sugato & McConnell, John J., 1999. "Does Insider Trading Really Move Stock Prices?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(2), pages 191-209, June.
    17. Charles Cao & Zhiwu Chen & John M. Griffin, 2005. "Informational Content of Option Volume Prior to Takeovers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(3), pages 1073-1109, May.
    18. Eleswarapu, Venkat R. & Thompson, Rex & Venkataraman, Kumar, 2004. "The Impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure: Trading Costs and Information Asymmetry," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(2), pages 209-225, June.
    19. Kaushik I. Amin & Charles M. C. Lee, 1997. "Option Trading, Price Discovery, and Earnings News Dissemination," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(2), pages 153-192, June.
    20. Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro, 2008. "The colors of investors' money: The role of institutional investors around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 499-533, June.
    21. Arthur De Vany & W. David Walls, 2002. "Does Hollywood Make Too Many R-Rated Movies? Risk, Stochastic Dominance, and the Illusion of Expectation," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(3), pages 425-452, July.
    22. Mayhew, Stewart & Sarin, Atulya & Shastri, Kuldeep, 1995. "The Allocation of Informed Trading across Related Markets: An Analysis of the Impact of Changes in Equity-Option Margin Requirements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1635-1653, December.
    23. Detemple, Jerome B & Selden, Larry, 1991. "A General Equilibrium Analysis of Option and Stock Market Interactions," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 32(2), pages 279-303, May.
    24. Karl B. Diether & Kuan-Hui Lee & Ingrid M. Werner, 2009. "Short-Sale Strategies and Return Predictability," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 575-607, February.
    25. John M. Griffin & Jeffrey H. Harris & Selim Topaloglu, 2003. "The Dynamics of Institutional and Individual Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2285-2320, December.
    26. Shuping Chen & Dawn A. Matsumoto, 2006. "Favorable versus Unfavorable Recommendations: The Impact on Analyst Access to Management‐Provided Information," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 657-689, September.
    27. Michael D. Guttentag & Christine L. Porath & Samuel N. Fraidin, 2008. "Brandeis' Policeman: Results from a Laboratory Experiment on How to Prevent Corporate Fraud," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(2), pages 239-273, June.
    28. Patell, Jm & Wolfson, Ma, 1981. "The Ex Ante And Ex Post Price Effects Of Quarterly Earnings Announcements Reflected In Option And Stock-Prices," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 434-458.
    29. Yan, Shu, 2011. "Jump risk, stock returns, and slope of implied volatility smile," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 216-233, January.
    30. Cornett, Marcia Millon & Marcus, Alan J. & Saunders, Anthony & Tehranian, Hassan, 2007. "The impact of institutional ownership on corporate operating performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1771-1794, June.
    31. Duarte, Jefferson & Han, Xi & Harford, Jarrad & Young, Lance, 2008. "Information asymmetry, information dissemination and the effect of regulation FD on the cost of capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 24-44, January.
    32. Card, David & Payne, A. Abigail, 2002. "School finance reform, the distribution of school spending, and the distribution of student test scores," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 49-82, January.
    33. Haim Levy, 1992. "Stochastic Dominance and Expected Utility: Survey and Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(4), pages 555-593, April.
    34. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    35. Gintschel, Andreas & Markov, Stanimir, 2004. "The effectiveness of Regulation FD," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 293-314, September.
    36. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb & Wanli Zhao, 2012. "Family‐Controlled Firms and Informed Trading: Evidence from Short Sales," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 351-386, February.
    37. Lee, Jason & Yi, Cheong H., 2001. "Trade Size and Information-Motivated Trading in the Options and Stock Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 485-501, December.
    38. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    39. Jorion, Philippe & Liu, Zhu & Shi, Charles, 2005. "Informational effects of regulation FD: evidence from rating agencies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 309-330, May.
    40. Kopa, Miloš & Post, Thierry, 2009. "A Portfolio Optimality Test Based on the First-Order Stochastic Dominance Criterion," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 1103-1124, October.
    41. Guillermo Llorente & Roni Michaely & Gideon Saar & Jiang Wang, 2002. "Dynamic Volume-Return Relation of Individual Stocks," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 1005-1047.
    42. Xing, Yuhang & Zhang, Xiaoyan & Zhao, Rui, 2010. "What Does the Individual Option Volatility Smirk Tell Us About Future Equity Returns?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 641-662, June.
    43. Ke, Bin & Huddart, Steven & Petroni, Kathy, 2003. "What insiders know about future earnings and how they use it: Evidence from insider trades," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 315-346, August.
    44. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:2:p:431-465 is not listed on IDEAS
    45. Scott Richardson & Siew Hong Teoh & Peter D. Wysocki, 2004. "The Walk†down to Beatable Analyst Forecasts: The Role of Equity Issuance and Insider Trading Incentives," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(4), pages 885-924, December.
    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. Zhang, Qiyu & Zhang, Xiaoxiang & Chen, Ding & Strange, Roger, 2022. "Market discipline or rent extraction: Impacts of share trading by foreign institutional investors in different corporate governance and investor protection environments," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Wang, Xiaoqiong & Wei, Siqi, 2021. "Does the investment horizon of institutional investors matter for stock liquidity?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Paul Borochin & Jie Yang, 2016. "The Effects of Institutional Investor Objectives on Firm Valuation and Governance," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-088, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Borochin, Paul & Yang, Jie, 2017. "The effects of institutional investor objectives on firm valuation and governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 171-199.
    5. Chen, Yanyan & Tian, Gary Gang & Yao, Daifei Troy, 2019. "Does regulating executive compensation impact insider trading?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-20.
    6. Cristhian Mellado & Surendranath R. Jory & Thanh N. Ngo, 2016. "Do Option Traders Target Firms With Poor Earnings Quality," 2016 Papers pme563, Job Market Papers.

    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. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    2. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    3. Podolski, Edward J. & Truong, Cameron & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2013. "Informed options trading prior to takeovers – Does the regulatory environment matter?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 286-305.
    4. Vinay Patel, 2015. "Price Discovery in US and Australian Stock and Options Markets," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 27, July-Dece.
    5. Gkionis, Konstantinos & Kostakis, Alexandros & Skiadopoulos, George & Stilger, Przemyslaw S., 2021. "Positive stock information in out-of-the-money option prices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Vinay Patel, 2015. "Price Discovery in US and Australian Stock and Options Markets," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 6-2015, January-A.
    7. Delisle, R. Jared & Lee, Bong Soo & Mauck, Nathan, 2012. "The dynamic relation between short sellers, option traders, and aggregate returns," MPRA Paper 42566, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Wen Jin & Joshua Livnat & Yuan Zhang, 2012. "Option Prices Leading Equity Prices: Do Option Traders Have an Information Advantage?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 401-432, May.
    9. Roll, Richard & Schwartz, Eduardo & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2014. "Trading activity in the equity market and its contingent claims: An empirical investigation," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 13-35.
    10. Da‐Hea Kim, 2022. "Investment horizon and option market activity," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(5), pages 923-958, May.
    11. Du, Brian & Fung, Scott, 2018. "Directional information effects of options trading: Evidence from the banking industry," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 149-168.
    12. Ramnath, Sundaresh & Rock, Steve & Shane, Philip, 2008. "The financial analyst forecasting literature: A taxonomy with suggestions for further research," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 34-75.
    13. Lo, May H. & Xu, Le (Emily), 2013. "Regulation FD and analysts’ vs. investors’ weightings of the cash components of earnings," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 169-184.
    14. Zhou, Yi, 2022. "Option trading volume by moneyness, firm fundamentals, and expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    15. Baljit Sidhu & Tom Smith & Robert E. Whaley & Richard H. Willis, 2008. "Regulation Fair Disclosure and the Cost of Adverse Selection," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 697-728, June.
    16. Cowan, Arnold R. & Salotti, Valentina, 2020. "Anti-selective disclosure regulation and analyst forecast accuracy and usefulness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Keming Li, 2021. "The effect of option trading," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-32, December.
    18. Chen, Zhuo & Lu, Andrea, 2017. "Slow diffusion of information and price momentum in stocks: Evidence from options markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 98-108.
    19. Semih Tartaroglu & Michael Imhof, 2017. "Insider trading and response to earnings announcements: the impact of accelerated disclosure requirements," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 315-336, August.
    20. George D. Cashman & David M. Harrison & Hainan Sheng, 2021. "Option Trading and REIT Returns," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(1), pages 332-389, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informed trading measures; Options market; Selective disclosure; Stochastic dominance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:jbfina:v:37:y:2013:i:11:p:4337-4352. 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/jbf .

    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.