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Single stock circuit breakers on the London Stock Exchange: do they improve subsequent market quality?

Author

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  • James Brugler

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Oliver Linton

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Cambridge)

Abstract

This paper uses proprietary data to evaluate the efficacy of single-stock circuit breakers on the London Stock Exchange during July and August 2011. We exploit exogenous variation in the length of the uncrossing periods that follow a trading suspension to estimate the effect of auction length on market quality, measured by volume of trades, frequency of trading and the change in realized variance of returns. We also estimate the effect of a trading suspension in one FTSE-100 stock on the volume of trades, trading frequency and the change in realized variance of returns for other FTSE-100 stocks. We find that auction length has a significant detrimental effect on market quality for the suspended security when returns are negative but no discernible effect when returns are positive. We also find that trading suspensions help to ameliorate the spread of market microstructure noise and price inefficiency across securities during falling markets but the reverse is true during rising markets. Although trading suspensions may not improve the trading process within a particular security, they do play an important role preventing the spread of poor market quality across securities in falling markets and therefore can be effective tools for promoting market-wide stability.

Suggested Citation

  • James Brugler & Oliver Linton, 2014. "Single stock circuit breakers on the London Stock Exchange: do they improve subsequent market quality?," CeMMAP working papers CWP07/14, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:cemmap:07/14
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    Cited by:

    1. Leal, Sandrine Jacob & Napoletano, Mauro, 2019. "Market stability vs. market resilience: Regulatory policies experiments in an agent-based model with low- and high-frequency trading," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 15-41.
    2. Sandrine Jacob Leal & Mauro Napoletano, 2017. "Market Stability vs. Market Resilience: Regulatory Policies Experiments in an Agent-Based Model with Low- and High-Frequency Trading," Post-Print hal-01768876, HAL.
    3. Kun Li, 2019. "Do Circuit Breakers Impede Trading Behavior? A Study In Chinese Financial Market," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(05), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Imtiaz Mohammad Sifat & Azhar Mohamad, 2019. "Circuit breakers as market stability levers: A survey of research, praxis, and challenges," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(3), pages 1130-1169, July.
    5. Sifat, Imtiaz Mohammad & Mohamad, Azhar, 2018. "Trading aggression when price limit hits are imminent: NARDL based intraday investigation of magnet effect," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 1-8.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3utlh0ehcn860pus6p2p683ade is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Sifat, Imtiaz Mohammad & Mohamad, Azhar, 2020. "A survey on the magnet effect of circuit breakers in financial markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 138-151.
    8. Floris Laly & Mikael Petitjean, 2020. "Mini flash crashes: Review, taxonomy and policy responses," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 251-271, July.
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3utlh0ehcn860pus6p2p683ade is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Brugler, James, 2015. "Into the light: dark pool trading and intraday market quality on the primary exchange," Bank of England working papers 545, Bank of England.

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