IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/revfin/v20y2016i2p693-723..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alphabetic Bias, Investor Recognition, and Trading Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Heiko Jacobs
  • Alexander Hillert

Abstract

Extensive research has revealed that alphabetical name ordering tends to provide an advantage to those positioned in the beginning of an alphabetical listing. This article is the first to explore the implications of this alphabetic bias in financial markets. We find that US stocks that appear near the top of an alphabetical listing have about 5–15% higher trading activity and liquidity than stocks that appear toward the bottom. The magnitude of these results is negatively related to firm visibility and investor sophistication. International evidence and fund flows further indicate that ordering effects can affect trading activity and liquidity.

Suggested Citation

  • Heiko Jacobs & Alexander Hillert, 2016. "Alphabetic Bias, Investor Recognition, and Trading Behavior," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(2), pages 693-723.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:20:y:2016:i:2:p:693-723.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rof/rfv060
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    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. Chen, Jia & Hou, Kewei & Stulz, Rene M., 2015. "Are Firms in 'Boring' Industries Worth Less?," Working Paper Series 2015-02, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    2. Harrison Hong & Jeremy C. Stein, 2007. "Disagreement and the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 109-128, Spring.
    3. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2001. "How Distance, Language, and Culture Influence Stockholdings and Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 1053-1073, June.
    4. Daniel Feenberg & Ina Ganguli & Patrick Gaulé & Jonathan Gruber, 2017. "It’s Good to Be First: Order Bias in Reading and Citing NBER Working Papers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 32-39, March.
    5. Choi, Darwin & Getmansky, Mila & Tookes, Heather, 2009. "Convertible bond arbitrage, liquidity externalities, and stock prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 227-251, February.
    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. Salisu, Afees A. & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Firm-specific news and the predictability of Consumer stocks in Vietnam," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    2. Debraj Ray & Arthur Robson, 2018. "Certified Random: A New Order for Coauthorship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 489-520, February.
    3. Moon, Sue H. & Zhou, Mingming & Zhu, Yun, 2023. "What’s in a name? Leaders’ names, compensation, and firm performance," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Dierick, Nicolas & Heyman, Dries & Inghelbrecht, Koen & Stieperaere, Hannes, 2019. "Financial attention and the disposition effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 190-217.
    5. Harris, Mark N. & Novarese, Marco & Wilson, Chris M., 2022. "Being in the right place: A natural field experiment on the causes of position effects in individual choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 24-40.
    6. Li, Ang & Li, Ben, 2021. "Alphabetic norm and research output," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 50-60.
    7. Jordan Moore, 2020. "Glamour among value: P/E ratios and value investor attention," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(3), pages 673-706, September.
    8. Aouadi, Amal & Arouri, Mohamed & Roubaud, David, 2018. "Information demand and stock market liquidity: International evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 194-202.
    9. Baer, Naomi & Barry, Erica & Smith, Gary, 2020. "The name game: The importance of resourcefulness, ruses, and recall in stock ticker symbols," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 410-413.
    10. Andreas Oehler & Julian Schneider, 2023. "Social trading: do signal providers trigger gambling?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1269-1331, May.
    11. Aymen Karoui & Sadok El Ghoul, 2022. "Fund names versus family names: Implications for mutual fund flows," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 509-531, August.
    12. Li, Jiyuan & Li, Zihui & Zhang, Min, 2023. "CFOs’ facial trustworthiness and bank loan contracts," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 332-357.
    13. Merkle, Christoph & Sextroh, Christoph J., 2021. "Value and momentum from investors’ perspective: Evidence from professionals’ risk-ratings," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 159-178.
    14. Cheng, Hua & Hu, Cui & Li, Ben G., 2020. "Lexicographic biases in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    15. Qiu, Jiayue & Wu, Hai & Zhang, Lijuan, 2021. "In name only: Information spillovers among Chinese firms with similar stock names during earnings announcements," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    16. Schneider, Julian & Oehler, Andreas, 2021. "Competition for visibility: When do (FX) signal providers employ lotteries?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    17. Florian Röder & Andreas Walter, 2019. "What Drives Investment Flows Into Social Trading Portfolios?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 383-411, July.
    18. Wu, Haibo & Wu, Chongfeng, 2024. "Mobile device use and the ranking effect on trading behavior: Evidence from natural experiments," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Eran Rubin & Amir Rubin, 2021. "On the economic effects of the text completion interface: empirical analysis of financial markets," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 31(3), pages 717-735, September.
    20. Xing, Xuejing & Anderson, Randy I. & Hu, Yan, 2016. "What׳s a name worth? The impact of a likeable stock ticker symbol on firm value," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 63-80.
    21. Hu, Cui & Li, Ben G., 2021. "Chinese lexicography and stock trading," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 44-59.
    22. Salisu, Afees A. & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2020. "Predicting stock returns in the presence of COVID-19 pandemic: The role of health news," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    23. Chenjun Fang & Ning Zhu, 2019. "Name complexity, cognitive fluency, and asset prices," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 168-196, January.
    24. Huang, Yin-Siang & Chuang, Hui-Ching & Hasan, Iftekhar & Lin, Chih-Yung, 2024. "Search symbols, trading performance, and investor participation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 380-393.

    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. Chunxin Jia & Yaping Wang & Wei Xiong, 2015. "Social Trust and Differential Reactions of Local and Foreign Investors to Public News," NBER Working Papers 21075, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Chen, Jason V., 2023. "The wisdom of crowds and the market's response to earnings news: Evidence using the geographic dispersion of investors," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2).
    3. Weida Kuang & Qilin Wang, 2018. "Cultural similarities and housing market linkage: evidence from OECD countries," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    4. Kaustia, Markku & Knüpfer, Samuli, 2012. "Peer performance and stock market entry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 321-338.
    5. Frijns, Bart & Huynh, Thanh D. & Tourani-Rad, Alireza & Westerholm, P. Joakim, 2018. "Institutional trading and asset pricing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 59-77.
    6. Bender, Svetlana & Choi, James J. & Dyson, Danielle & Robertson, Adriana Z., 2022. "Millionaires speak: What drives their personal investment decisions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 305-330.
    7. Dittmann, Ingolf & Montone, Maurizio & Zhu, Yuhao, 2023. "Wage gap and stock returns: Do investors dislike pay inequality?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Antonio Acconcia & Alfredo Del Monte & Luca Pennacchio & Germana Scepi, 2011. "IPO Underpricing and the Location of Firms," CSEF Working Papers 295, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 04 Feb 2021.
    9. Eunsoo Kim & Suyon Kim & Jaehong Lee, 2021. "Do Foreign Investors Affect Carbon Emission Disclosure? Evidence from South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, September.
    10. John Y. Campbell, 2016. "Restoring Rational Choice: The Challenge of Consumer Financial Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 1-30, May.
    11. Lee, Boram & Rosenthal, Leonard & Veld, Chris & Veld-Merkoulova, Yulia, 2015. "Stock market expectations and risk aversion of individual investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 122-131.
    12. Tanos, Barbara Abou, 2022. "Culture and mutual funds’ performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    13. Stolowy, Hervé & Jeanjean, Thomas & Erkens, Michael, 2011. "The economic consequences of increasing the international visibility of financial reports," HEC Research Papers Series 957, HEC Paris.
    14. Turki Rashed Alshammari & Jean-Noël Ory, 2023. "The Impact of Religious Announcements on Stock Prices and Investment Decisions on the Saudi Stock Exchange," Post-Print hal-04105704, HAL.
    15. Cici, Gjergji & Gehde-Trapp, Monika & Göricke, Marc-André & Kempf, Alexander, 2014. "What they did in their previous life: The investment value of mutual fund managers' experience outside the financial sector," CFR Working Papers 14-11, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    16. Gaar, E. & Scherer, D. & Schiereck, D., 2020. "The home bias and the local bias: A survey," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 124801, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    17. Ishii, Joy & Xuan, Yuhai, 2014. "Acquirer-target social ties and merger outcomes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 344-363.
    18. Ning Jia, 2017. "Diversification of pre-IPO ownership and foreign IPO performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1031-1061, May.
    19. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2019_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Chan, Kalok & Covrig, Vicentiu, 2012. "What determines mutual fund trading in foreign stocks?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 793-817.
    21. Korczak, Piotr & Phylaktis, Kate, 2010. "Related securities and price discovery: Evidence from NYSE-listed Non-U.S. stocks," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 566-584, September.

    More about this item

    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:oup:revfin:v:20:y:2016:i:2:p:693-723.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eufaaea.html .

    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.