IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/mulfin/v20y2010i4-5p214-234.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exchange-traded funds, persistence in tracking errors and information dissemination

Author

Listed:
  • Shin, Sangheon
  • Soydemir, Gökçe

Abstract

We estimate tracking errors from 26 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) utilizing three different methods and test their relative performance using Jensen's model. We find that tracking errors are significantly different from zero and display persistence. Based on Jensen's alpha, risk adjusted returns are significantly inferior to benchmark returns for all ETFs with two exceptions at conventional significance levels revealing that passive investment strategy does not outperform market returns. We then examine the degree to which frequently used factors such as expense ratio, dividends, exchange rate and spreads of trading prices may be underlying sources of tracking errors causing this underperformance. We find that the change in the exchange rate is a significant source of tracking errors. Our serial correlation test, runs test and panel regression analysis reveal that Asian markets display relatively greater persistence and therefore are less efficient in disseminating information and noisier in filtering the information contained in returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Shin, Sangheon & Soydemir, Gökçe, 2010. "Exchange-traded funds, persistence in tracking errors and information dissemination," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(4-5), pages 214-234, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:mulfin:v:20:y:2010:i:4-5:p:214-234
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042-444X(10)00017-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Michael C. Jensen, 1968. "The Performance Of Mutual Funds In The Period 1945–1964," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(2), pages 389-416, May.
    2. Yang, Ting & Lau, Sie Ting, 2005. "U.S. cross-listing and China's B-share discount," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(4-5), pages 334-353, October.
    3. repec:bla:jfinan:v:55:y:2000:i:4:p:1655-1703 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock‐Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1695, August.
    5. Delcoure, Natalya & Zhong, Maosen, 2007. "On the premiums of iShares," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 168-195, March.
    6. Anita K. Pennathur & Natalya Delcoure & Dwight Anderson, 2002. "Diversification Benefits of iShares and Closed‐End Country Funds," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 25(4), pages 541-557, December.
    7. Edwin J. Elton, 2002. "Spiders: Where Are the Bugs?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(3), pages 453-472, July.
    8. Harper, Joel T. & Madura, Jeff & Schnusenberg, Oliver, 2006. "Performance comparison between exchange-traded funds and closed-end country funds," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 104-122, April.
    9. Olienyk, John P. & Schwebach, Robert G. & Kenton Zumwalt, J., 1999. "WEBS, SPDRs, and country funds: an analysis of international cointegration," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(3-4), pages 217-232, November.
    10. James M. Poterba & John B. Shoven, 2002. "Exchange-Traded Funds: A New Investment Option for Taxable Investors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 422-427, May.
    11. Blume, Lawrence & Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen, 1994. "Market Statistics and Technical Analysis: The Role of Volume," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 153-181, March.
    12. Bergstrom, Clas & Tang, Ellen, 2001. "Price differentials between different classes of stocks: an empirical study on Chinese stock markets," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(4-5), pages 407-426, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. R. Shanmugham & Zabiulla, 2012. "Pricing Efficiency of Nifty BeES in Bullish and Bearish Markets," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 13(1), pages 109-121, February.
    2. Patrick Kuok-Kun Chu, 2016. "Analysis and Forecast of Tracking Performance of Hong Kong Exchange-Traded Funds: Evidence from Tracker Fund and X iShares A50," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(04), pages 1-26, December.
    3. Laurent Deville, 2008. "Exchange Traded Funds: History, Trading and Research," Post-Print halshs-00162223, HAL.
    4. Harper, Joel T. & Madura, Jeff & Schnusenberg, Oliver, 2006. "Performance comparison between exchange-traded funds and closed-end country funds," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 104-122, April.
    5. Chelley-Steeley, Patricia & Park, Keebong, 2010. "The adverse selection component of exchange traded funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 65-76, January.
    6. Perera, Devmali & Białkowski, Jędrzej & Bohl, Martin T., 2022. "Is the tracking error time-varying? Evidence from agricultural ETCs," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Goel, Garima & Ahluwalia, Eshan, 2021. "Do pricing efficiencies in Indian equity ETF market impact its performance?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    8. S. Narend & M. Thenmozhi, 2019. "Do Country ETFs Influence Foreign Stock Market Index? Evidence from India ETFs," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 18(1_suppl), pages 59-86, April.
    9. Chen, Honghui & Morse, Joel N. & Nguyen, Hoang Huy, 2009. "Changes in the liquidity of closed-end country funds after the introduction of World Equity Benchmarks," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 1081-1094, August.
    10. M. Barari & Brian Lucey & S. Voronkova, 2008. "Reassessing co-movements among G7 equity markets: evidence from iShares," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(11), pages 863-877.
    11. Elton, Edwin J. & Gruber, Martin J., 2013. "Mutual Funds," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1011-1061, Elsevier.
    12. Joëlle Miffre, 2007. "Country-specific ETFs: An efficient approach to global asset allocation," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(2), pages 112-122, July.
    13. Nafis Alam, 2013. "A comparative performance analysis of conventional and Islamic exchange-traded funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(1), pages 27-36, February.
    14. Jack W Aber & Dan Li & Luc Can, 2009. "Price volatility and tracking ability of ETFs," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(4), pages 210-221, October.
    15. Hilliard, Jitka, 2014. "Premiums and discounts in ETFs: An analysis of the arbitrage mechanism in domestic and international funds," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 90-107.
    16. Rakowski, David & Shirley, Sara, 2020. "What drives the market for exchange-traded notes?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    17. Devmali Perera & Jędrzej Białkowski & Martin T. Bohl, 2022. "Is the Tracking Error Time-Varying? Evidence from Agricultural ETCs," Working Papers in Economics 22/13, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    18. Christiane Goodfellow & Dirk Schiereck & Steffen Wippler, 2013. "Are behavioural finance equity funds a superior investment? A note on fund performance and market efficiency," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(2), pages 111-119, April.
    19. Sanaullah & Muhammad Shahbaz Khan & Dr. Amna Noor & Salleh Khan, 2021. "An Investigation of Market Timing Ability of Mutual Fund Managers in Pakistan," iRASD Journal of Management, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 3(1), pages 56-68, june.
    20. Jason P. Berkowitz & Patrick J. Schorno & Dmitry A. Shapiro, 2017. "Characteristics of mutual funds with extreme performance," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(1), pages 50-60, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    G12 G14 G15 Exchange-traded funds Tracking errors Persistence;

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

    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:mulfin:v:20:y:2010:i:4-5:p:214-234. 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/mulfin .

    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.