IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v57y2015icp46-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Herding where retail investors dominate trading: The case of Saudi Arabia

Author

Listed:
  • Rahman, M. Arifur
  • Chowdhury, Shah Saeed Hassan
  • Shibley Sadique, M.

Abstract

We investigate herding in the Saudi stock market, where more than 95% of the total trading is initiated by the individual investors. Based on readily available stock data, we find evidence of pervasive herding among the market participants. Although herding is prevalent irrespective of market conditions, it tends to get stronger in periods when the market rises and the trading activity intensifies. Traders are found to be indifferent to important stock categories in their herd behavior. Further analysis suggests that the correlated behavior of Saudi traders is unlikely to be induced by the common movements in fundamentals. Considering the unique composition of the market clientele, we interpret these findings as constituting market level evidence supporting a commonly held belief in the literature that the individual investors are more likely to be noise traders.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahman, M. Arifur & Chowdhury, Shah Saeed Hassan & Shibley Sadique, M., 2015. "Herding where retail investors dominate trading: The case of Saudi Arabia," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 46-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:46-60
    DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2015.01.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062976915000034
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.qref.2015.01.002?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. Chang, Eric C. & Cheng, Joseph W. & Khorana, Ajay, 2000. "An examination of herd behavior in equity markets: An international perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1651-1679, October.
    2. Lakonishok, Josef & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1992. "The impact of institutional trading on stock prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 23-43, August.
    3. Kim, Woochan & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2002. "Foreign portfolio investors before and during a crisis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 77-96, January.
    4. Shleifer, Andrei & Summers, Lawrence H, 1990. "The Noise Trader Approach to Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 19-33, Spring.
    5. Baker, Malcolm & Stein, Jeremy C., 2004. "Market liquidity as a sentiment indicator," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 271-299, June.
    6. Moshe Buchinsky, 1998. "Recent Advances in Quantile Regression Models: A Practical Guideline for Empirical Research," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(1), pages 88-126.
    7. Sushil Bikhchandani & Sunil Sharma, 2001. "Herd Behavior in Financial Markets," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 47(3), pages 1-1.
    8. De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990. "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-738, August.
    9. Richard W. Sias, 2004. "Institutional Herding," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 165-206.
    10. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2001. "What Makes Investors Trade?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 589-616, April.
    11. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    12. Welch, Ivo, 1992. "Sequential Sales, Learning, and Cascades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 695-732, June.
    13. repec:bla:jfinan:v:44:y:1989:i:5:p:1115-53 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Patterson, Douglas M. & Sharma, Vivek, 2010. "The Incidence Of Informational Cascades And The Behavior Of Trade Interarrival Times During The Stock Market Bubble," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(S1), pages 111-136, May.
    15. David Hirshleifer, 2001. "Investor Psychology and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1533-1597, August.
    16. Lamoureux, Christopher G & Lastrapes, William D, 1990. "Heteroskedasticity in Stock Return Data: Volume versus GARCH Effects," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 221-229, March.
    17. Goodfellow, Christiane & Bohl, Martin T. & Gebka, Bartosz, 2009. "Together we invest? Individual and institutional investors' trading behaviour in Poland," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 212-221, September.
    18. Aikaterini Andronikidi & Vasileios Kallinterakis, 2010. "Thin trading and its impact upon herding: the case of Israel," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(18), pages 1805-1810.
    19. Mansourfar, Gholamreza & Mohamad, Shamsher & Hassan, Taufiq, 2010. "The behavior of MENA oil and non-oil producing countries in international portfolio optimization," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 415-423, November.
    20. Demirer, RIza & Kutan, Ali M., 2006. "Does herding behavior exist in Chinese stock markets?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 123-142, April.
    21. Yao, Juan & Ma, Chuanchan & He, William Peng, 2014. "Investor herding behaviour of Chinese stock market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 12-29.
    22. Choi, Nicole & Sias, Richard W., 2009. "Institutional industry herding," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 469-491, December.
    23. Clark, Peter K, 1973. "A Subordinated Stochastic Process Model with Finite Variance for Speculative Prices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(1), pages 135-155, January.
    24. Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Choi, Kyongwook, 2006. "Behavior of GCC stock markets and impacts of US oil and financial markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 22-44, March.
    25. Shefrin, Hersh & Statman, Meir, 1985. "The Disposition to Sell Winners Too Early and Ride Losers Too Long: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 777-790, July.
    26. Barber, Brad M. & Odean, Terrance & Zhu, Ning, 2009. "Systematic noise," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 547-569, November.
    27. Scharfstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1990. "Herd Behavior and Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 465-479, June.
    28. Gleason, Kimberly C. & Mathur, Ike & Peterson, Mark A., 2004. "Analysis of intraday herding behavior among the sector ETFs," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 681-694, December.
    29. Garman, Mark B & Klass, Michael J, 1980. "On the Estimation of Security Price Volatilities from Historical Data," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 67-78, January.
    30. Hwang, Soosung & Salmon, Mark, 2004. "Market stress and herding," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 585-616, September.
    31. Chiang, Thomas C. & Zheng, Dazhi, 2010. "An empirical analysis of herd behavior in global stock markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1911-1921, August.
    32. Longin, Francois & Solnik, Bruno, 1995. "Is the correlation in international equity returns constant: 1960-1990?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 3-26, February.
    33. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2000. "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 773-806, April.
    34. Russ Wermers, 1999. "Mutual Fund Herding and the Impact on Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 581-622, April.
    35. Hsieh, Shu-Fan, 2013. "Individual and institutional herding and the impact on stock returns: Evidence from Taiwan stock market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 175-188.
    36. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:1345-1365 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Tan, Lin & Chiang, Thomas C. & Mason, Joseph R. & Nelling, Edward, 2008. "Herding behavior in Chinese stock markets: An examination of A and B shares," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 61-77, January.
    38. Grinblatt, Mark & Titman, Sheridan & Wermers, Russ, 1995. "Momentum Investment Strategies, Portfolio Performance, and Herding: A Study of Mutual Fund Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1088-1105, December.
    39. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    40. Balcilar, Mehmet & Demirer, Rıza & Hammoudeh, Shawkat, 2013. "Investor herds and regime-switching: Evidence from Gulf Arab stock markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 295-321.
    41. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    42. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "Style investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 161-199, May.
    43. Tahsin Saadi Sedik & Mr. Oral Williams, 2011. "Global and Regional Spillovers to GCC Equity Markets," IMF Working Papers 2011/138, International Monetary Fund.
    44. Yu, Jung-Suk & Hassan, M. Kabir, 2008. "Global and regional integration of the Middle East and North African (MENA) stock markets," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 482-504, August.
    45. John R. Nofsinger & Richard W. Sias, 1999. "Herding and Feedback Trading by Institutional and Individual Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2263-2295, December.
    46. Brown, Gregory W. & Cliff, Michael T., 2004. "Investor sentiment and the near-term stock market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, January.
    47. Demirer, Riza & Kutan, Ali M. & Chen, Chun-Da, 2010. "Do investors herd in emerging stock markets?: Evidence from the Taiwanese market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 283-295, November.
    48. Terrance Odean, 1999. "Do Investors Trade Too Much?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1279-1298, December.
    49. Black, Fischer, 1986. "Noise," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(3), pages 529-543, July.
    50. Brad M. Barber & Yi-Tsung Lee & Yu-Jane Liu & Terrance Odean, 2009. "Just How Much Do Individual Investors Lose by Trading?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 609-632, February.
    51. Alok Kumar & Charles M.C. Lee, 2006. "Retail Investor Sentiment and Return Comovements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(5), pages 2451-2486, October.
    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. Salem, Razan, 2019. "Examining the investment behavior of Arab women in the stock market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 151-160.
    2. Hajiyev, Aghamehman & Keiber, Karl Ludwig & Luczak, Adalbert, 2024. "Tug of war with noise traders? Evidence from the G7 stock markets," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 234-243.
    3. Dina Gabbori & Basel Awartani & Aktham Maghyereh & Nader Virk, 2021. "OPEC meetings, oil market volatility and herding behaviour in the Saudi Arabia stock market," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 870-888, January.
    4. Pagano, Michael S. & Sedunov, John & Velthuis, Raisa, 2021. "How did retail investors respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? The effect of Robinhood brokerage customers on market quality," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    5. Puput Tri Komalasari & Marwan Asri & Bernardinus M. Purwanto & Bowo Setiyono, 2022. "Herding behaviour in the capital market: What do we know and what is next?," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 745-787, September.
    6. Haitham Nobanee & Nejla Ould Daoud Ellili & Jaya Abraham, 2017. "Equity Concentration, Agency Costs and Performance of Non-financial Firms Listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul)," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 18(2), pages 379-387, April.
    7. Wasiuzzaman, Shaista, 2018. "Seasonality in the Saudi stock market: The Hajj effect," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 273-281.
    8. Mehmet Balcilar & Riza Demirer & Talat Ulussever, 2016. "Does speculation in the oil market drive investor herding in net exporting nations?," Working Papers 15-29, Eastern Mediterranean University, Department of Economics.
    9. Balcılar, Mehmet & Demirer, Rıza & Ulussever, Talat, 2017. "Does speculation in the oil market drive investor herding in emerging stock markets?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 50-63.
    10. Mouna Youssef & Khaled Mokni, 2023. "Herding behavior in stock markets of oil-importing and oil-exporting countries: the role of oil price," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 44-58, February.
    11. Shah Saeed Hassan Chowdhury & M. Arifur Rahman & M. Shibley Sadique, 2017. "Stock return autocorrelation, day of the week and volatility," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(2), pages 218-238, May.

    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. Puput Tri Komalasari & Marwan Asri & Bernardinus M. Purwanto & Bowo Setiyono, 2022. "Herding behaviour in the capital market: What do we know and what is next?," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 745-787, September.
    2. Pegah Dehghani & Ros Zam Zam Sapian, 2014. "Sectoral herding behavior in the aftermarket of Malaysian IPOs," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 227-246, July.
    3. Guney, Yilmaz & Kallinterakis, Vasileios & Komba, Gabriel, 2017. "Herding in frontier markets: Evidence from African stock exchanges," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 152-175.
    4. Li, Wei & Rhee, Ghon & Wang, Steven Shuye, 2017. "Differences in herding: Individual vs. institutional investors," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 174-185.
    5. Wang, Xinru & Kim, Maria H. & Suardi, Sandy, 2022. "Herding and China's market-wide circuit breaker," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    6. Liu, Tengdong & Zheng, Dazhi & Zheng, Suyan & Lu, Yang, 2023. "Herding in Chinese stock markets: Evidence from the dual-investor-group," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Economou, Fotini & Gavriilidis, Konstantinos & Goyal, Abhinav & Kallinterakis, Vasileios, 2015. "Herding dynamics in exchange groups: Evidence from Euronext," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 228-244.
    8. Ramzi Benkraiem & Mondher Bouattour & Emilios Galariotis & Anthony Miloudi, 2021. "Do investors in SMEs herd? Evidence from French and UK equity markets," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1619-1637, April.
    9. Yi-Chang Chen & Hung-Che Wu & Jen-Jsung Huang, 2017. "Herd Behavior and Rational Expectations: A Test of China's Market Using Quantile Regression," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(2), pages 649-663.
    10. Andrikopoulos, Panagiotis & Kallinterakis, Vasileios & Leite Ferreira, Mario Pedro & Verousis, Thanos, 2017. "Intraday herding on a cross-border exchange," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 25-36.
    11. Balcılar, Mehmet & Demirer, Rıza & Ulussever, Talat, 2017. "Does speculation in the oil market drive investor herding in emerging stock markets?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 50-63.
    12. Shi, Guiqiang & Shen, Dehua & Zhu, Zhaobo, 2024. "Herding towards carbon neutrality: The role of investor attention," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Moatemri Ouarda & Abdelfatteh El Bouri & Olivero Bernard, 2013. "Herding Behavior under Markets Condition: Empirical Evidence on the European Financial Markets," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 3(1), pages 214-228.
    14. Hsieh, Shu-Fan, 2013. "Individual and institutional herding and the impact on stock returns: Evidence from Taiwan stock market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 175-188.
    15. Cui, Yueting & Gebka, Bartosz & Kallinterakis, Vasileios, 2019. "Do closed-end fund investors herd?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 194-206.
    16. Mehmet Balcilar & Riza Demirer & Talat Ulussever, 2016. "Does speculation in the oil market drive investor herding in net exporting nations?," Working Papers 15-29, Eastern Mediterranean University, Department of Economics.
    17. Humayun Kabir, M. & Shakur, Shamim, 2018. "Regime-dependent herding behavior in Asian and Latin American stock markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 60-78.
    18. Ahmad Fawwaz Mohd Nasarudin & Bany Ariffin Amin Noordin & Siong Hook Law & Mohd Hisham Yahya, 2017. "Investigation of Herding Behaviour in Developed and Developing Countries: Does Country Governance Factor Matters?," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 1-14.
    19. Philippas, Nikolaos & Economou, Fotini & Babalos, Vassilios & Kostakis, Alexandros, 2013. "Herding behavior in REITs: Novel tests and the role of financial crisis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 166-174.
    20. Gębka, Bartosz & Wohar, Mark E., 2013. "International herding: Does it differ across sectors?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 55-84.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Market-wide herding; Retail investors; Dispersion of return; Dispersion of beta; Saudi stock market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • 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

    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:quaeco:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:46-60. 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/inca/620167 .

    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.