IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lvl/lagrcr/0001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sheep in Wolves' Clothing?

Author

Listed:
  • Weiner, Robert J.

Abstract

The 1990s have been a decade of upheaval in international financial markets. Much of the responsibility for financial instability has been placed on speculators, particularly hedge funds. Speculative capital has been characterized as "hot money", with capital flows driven by "herding" and "contagion" among players in foreign-exchange, stock, bond, and commodity markets. Policies to deal with financial instability by weakening, or even disabling speculation, have been based largely on anecdote, convenience (speculators have long served as scapegoats for various problems), and ideology, rather than careful analysis. Part of the problem arises from the secrecy with which speculators operate. Since speculative trading cannot easily be observed, it is difficult to assess speculators' contribution, if any, to financial volatility. This paper looks at speculative behavior in one of the largest, and most volatile, international financial markets, petroleum derivatives. It utilizes a large, detailed database on individual trader positions in crude-oil and heating-oil futures markets. The paper is exploratory, focusing on measuring and assessing the tendency of speculators to herd. Two theories behind rational herding behavior are examined - the asymmetric information view (poorly-informed traders make decisions based on observing well-informed traders, rather than market fundamentals) and the monitoring/incentive view (institutiona investors make decisions knowing that their incentives are based on performance relative to a benchmark such as mean returns for a group). These theories generate different predictions regarding the types of speculators most likely to herd. The evidence does not support the view that herding among speculators as a group is widespread in this market. In contrast, evidence in favor of a moderate degree of herding among one group of speculators, commodity-fund managers. The evidence is supportive of the monitoring/incentive theory, but not the asymmetric-information theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Weiner, Robert J., 2000. "Sheep in Wolves' Clothing?," Cahiers de recherche 0001, GREEN.
    • Handle: RePEc:lvl:lagrcr:0001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.green.ecn.ulaval.ca/CahiersGREEN2000/00-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eichengreen, Barry & Tobin, James & Wyplosz, Charles, 1995. "Two Cases for Sand in the Wheels of International Finance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(428), pages 162-172, January.
    2. Takatoshi Ito & Richard K. Lyons & Michael T. Melvin, 1996. "Is There Private Information in the FX Market? The Tokyo Experiment," Working Papers _005, University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Dale, Charles & Zyren, John, 1996. "Noncommercial Trading in the Energy Futures Market," MPRA Paper 47463, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Leuthold, Raymond M & Garcia, Philip & Lu, Richard, 1994. "The Returns and Forecasting Ability of Large Traders in the Frozen Pork Bellies Futures Market," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67(3), pages 459-473, July.
    7. 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.
    8. Scharfstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1990. "Herd Behavior and Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 465-479, June.
    9. Scott H. Irwin & Satoko Yoshimaru, 1999. "Managed futures, positive feedback trading, and futures price volatility," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(7), pages 759-776, October.
    10. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A., 1999. "A primer on hedge funds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 309-331, September.
    11. Devenow, Andrea & Welch, Ivo, 1996. "Rational herding in financial economics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 603-615, April.
    12. Flood, Robert P & Hodrick, Robert J, 1990. "On Testing for Speculative Bubbles," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 85-101, Spring.
    13. Manaster, Steven & Mann, Steven C, 1996. "Life in the Pits: Competitive Market Making and Inventory Control," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 953-975.
    14. Hartzmark, Michael L, 1991. "Luck versus Forecast Ability: Determinants of Trader Performance in Futures Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(1), pages 49-74, January.
    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. Robert Weiner, 2006. "Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together? Speculator Herding in the World Oil Market," RFF Working Paper Series dp-06-31, Resources for the Future.
    2. 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.
    3. I. Koetsier & J.A. Bikker, 2017. "Herding behaviour of Dutch pension funds in sovereign bond investments," Working Papers 17-15, Utrecht School of Economics.
    4. Economou, Fotini & Gavriilidis, Konstantinos & Kallinterakis, Vasileios & Yordanov, Nikolay, 2015. "Do fund managers herd in frontier markets — and why?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 76-87.
    5. Uchida, Hirofumi & Nakagawa, Ryuichi, 2007. "Herd behavior in the Japanese loan market: Evidence from bank panel data," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 555-583, October.
    6. I. Koetsier & J.A. Bikker, 2018. "Herding behavior of Dutch pension funds in asset class investments," Working Papers 18-04, Utrecht School of Economics.
    7. I. Koetsier & J.A. Bikker, 2017. "Herding behaviour of Dutch pension funds in sovereign bond investments," Working Papers 17-15, Utrecht School of Economics.
    8. Sumit Agarwal & I‐Ming Chiu & Chunlin Liu & S. Ghon Rhee, 2011. "The Brokerage Firm Effect In Herding: Evidence From Indonesia," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 34(3), pages 461-479, September.
    9. 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.
    10. Zheng, Zhigang & Tang, Ke & Liu, Yaodong & Guo, Jie Michael, 2021. "Gender and herding," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 379-400.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Klein, Arne C., 2013. "Time-variations in herding behavior: Evidence from a Markov switching SUR model," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 291-304.
    15. Xue, Wenjun & He, Zhongzhi & Hu, Yu, 2023. "The destabilizing effect of mutual fund herding: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Jose Olivares & Jean P. Sepulveda, 2007. "How Do Fund Managers Invest: Self Strategy of Herding in Private Pension Funds?," Past Working Papers 01, Universidad del Desarrollo, School of Business and Economics, revised Sep 2007.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Cai, Fang & Han, Song & Li, Dan & Li, Yi, 2019. "Institutional herding and its price impact: Evidence from the corporate bond market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 139-167.
    20. Frey, Stefan & Herbst, Patrick & Walter, Andreas, 2014. "Measuring mutual fund herding – A structural approach," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 219-239.

    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:lvl:lagrcr:0001. 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: Manuel Paradis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/grlvlca.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.