Search results

This paper investigates share price clustering and its determinants across Nasdaq Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Iceland.

This paper investigates share price clustering and its determinants across Nasdaq Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Iceland. Univariate analysis confirms widespread clustering, notably favouring closing prices ending in zero. Multivariate analysis explores the impact of firm size, price level, volatility, and turnover on clustering.

Univariate analysis confirms widespread clustering, notably favouring closing prices ending in zero. Multivariate analysis explores the impact of firm size, price level, volatility, and turnover on clustering. Results reveal pervasive clustering, strengthening with higher prices and turnover but weakening with larger trade volumes, firm size, and smaller tick sizes. These empirical findings support the theoretical expectations of price negotiation and resolution hypotheses.

The observed clustering presents an opportunity for investors to potentially capitalize on this market anomaly and achieve supra-normal returns.

Price clustering, the phenomenon where certain price levels are traded more frequently, challenges the efficient market hypothesis and has been extensively studied in financial markets. However, the Scandinavian stock markets, particularly those in the Nasdaq Nordic Exchange, remain unexplored in this context.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the presence of psychological barriers both in the main stock market indices of the Baltic states and the most actively traded individual stocks. A psychological barrier refers to a specific price point, often at round numbers (i.e. powers of 10), that investors believe is challenging to breach, influencing their behavior and trading decisions.

We conduct uniformity tests and barrier tests, such as barrier proximity tests and barrier hump tests, to evaluate the presence of psychological barriers. Additionally, we explore variations in means and variances near these potential barriers using regression and GARCH analysis.

The findings reveal that psychological barriers do exist in the Baltic stock markets, particularly within market indices. The Estonian market index stands out with the most pronounced indications of psychological barriers. Individual stocks also display significant changes in means and variances related to potential barriers, albeit with less uniformity.

Collectively, our findings challenge the traditional assumption of random returns within the Baltic stock markets. For practitioners, the finding that psychological barriers exist opens up opportunities for investment strategies that can capitalize on them.

This study is the first to comprehensively investigate psychological barriers in the Baltic stock markets. Our results provide a valuable contribution to understanding the impact of that phenomenon on pricing dynamics, which is particularly pertinent in less-researched frontier markets like the Baltic states.

This paper studies the dynamics and elasticities of house prices in Spain and Portugal (Iberia) at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level, addressing panel regression problems such as heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence between MSA.

The authors develop a two steps study. First, five distinct estimation methodologies are applied to estimate the long-term house price equilibrium of the Iberian MSA house market: Mean Group (MG), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) MG (FMOLS-MG), FMOLS Augmented MG (FMOLS-AMG), Common Correlated Effects MG (CCEMG) and Dynamic CCEMG (DCCEMG). FMOLS-AMG is found to be the best estimator for the long-term model. Second, an additional five distinct estimation methodologies are applied to estimate the short-term house price dynamics using the long-term FMOLS-AMG estimated price in the error-correction term of the short-term dynamic house price model: OLS Fixed Effects (FE), OLS Random Effects (RE), MG, CCEMG and DCCEMG. DCCEMG is found to be the best estimator for the short-term model.

The results show that in the long run Iberian house prices are inelastic to aggregate income (0.227). This is a much lower elasticity than what was previously found in US MSA house price studies, suggesting that there are other factors explaining Iberian house prices. According to our study, coastal MSA presents an inelastic housing supply and a price to income elasticity close to one, whereas inland MSA are shown to have an elastic supply and a non-significant price to income elasticity. Spatial differences are important and cross-section dependence is prevalent, affecting estimates in conventional methodologies that do not account for these limitations, such as OLS-FE and OLS-RE. Momentum and mean reversion are the main determinants of short-term dynamics.

Recent econometric advances that account for slope heterogeneity and cross-section dependence produce more accurate estimates than conventional panel estimation methodologies. The results suggest that house markets should be analyzed at the metropolitan level, not at the national level and that there are significant differences between short-term and long-term house price determinants.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study applying recent econometric advances to the Iberian MSA house market.

This paper aims to examine the extent of price clustering in a selection of Islamic stocks listed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan and also investigates the determinants of the phenomenon at the firm level.

The author test the uniformity of price distribution in the selected securities. Then, the determinants of price clustering were investigated through multivariate analysis based on a binary logistic regression model. Following the arguments of Narayan et al. (2011), who emphasize the importance of considering firm heterogeneity when studying the phenomenon, the author conducts the empirical study at the firm level.

The evidence indicates that Islamic stocks show a mild level of price clustering. Only half of the stocks under analysis rejected the uniformity test in the distribution of prices. In these cases, investors exhibited a preference for prices ending at zero and five. The evidence does not confirm the cultural clustering theories. Price clustering is found to be positively associated with price level and relative bid-ask spread. Overall, the negotiation hypothesis, which predicts that investors prefer round prices to minimize the costs associated with negotiations, best explains most of our results.

The existence of price clustering is difficult to reconcile with the prediction of the efficient market hypothesis that prices should follow a random walk. Moreover, the evidence indicates that Muslim investors share a preference for round prices in some settings, under the assumption that Islamic stocks are mostly traded by Muslim investors.

To the author’s best knowledge, this is the first study to address the subject of price clustering in Islamic stocks.

The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of psychological barriers in cryptocurrencies.

To detect psychological barriers, the authors perform a uniformity test, a barrier hump test, a barrier proximity test and conditional effects test to a sample comprised by the daily closing quotes of six of the most liquid cryptocurrencies.

The results evidence the existence of psychological barriers in four of the cryptocurrencies under scrutiny, namely, Bitcoin, Dash, NEM and Ripple.

The fact that the cryptocurrency market has a high share of unexperienced investors and presents several cases of psychological barriers is consistent with the hypothesis that that class of investors is particularly prone to the behavioral biases which cause psychological barriers.

This paper studies, for the first time, the existence of psychological barriers in the market of cryptocurrencies.

This paper aims to evaluate the influence of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the momentum effect, analysing its influence depending on the economic cycle and in different quantiles.

To determine the influence of EPU in the momentum effect taking into account the economic cycle and the level of the quantile, linear regression and quantile regression have been applied for the period from 2 January 1985 to 30 April 2019 for the US stock market.

It is shown that an increased feeling of insecurity associated with EPU reduces the momentum effect, especially in times of recession. Distinguishing by quantiles, an asymmetry in the impact of EPU in the momentum effect is discovered, finding that EPU reduces (increases) the profits of momentum strategies in the lowest (highest) quantiles. In the highest quantiles, an investor can obtain higher extraordinary returns with this strategy. For example, in the highest quantile, a one-point increase in the EPU levels would have increased the daily profitability by 12.7 basis points. These findings have important implications for investors and policymakers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that evaluates the influence of EPU on the momentum effect by conducting an analysis based on the economic cycle and different quantiles, demonstrating how these factors are relevant in the influence of this uncertainty in the momentum anomaly.

This paper investigates market-wide herding behavior among investors in the stock markets of Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico from January 2013 to December 2022.

We analyze a survivor-bias-free dataset of daily stock returns, employing a measure reflecting the cross-sectional deviation of stock returns relative to market consensus.

Significant anti-herding is observed in Brazil and Mexico, while Chile and Colombia show results consistent with rational asset pricing models. The COVID-19 pandemic generally intensifies anti-herding trends. Additionally, significant asymmetries in herding/anti-herding effects are noted during different market trends and volatility levels. Furthermore, we identify the drivers of this phenomenon, revealing that extreme crude oil price movements are associated with more pronounced anti-herding, and herding/anti-herding effects appear synchronized across all four markets.

Our findings regarding synchronization in herding dynamics suggest challenges in realizing the desired benefits of international diversification in the region.

The significant cross-country effects indicate that herding dynamics may play a crucial role in precipitating regional financial crises.

For the first time, we examine various features of herding behavior in the sample markets, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, psychological and economic drivers of the phenomenon and synchronization in herding dynamics among the four markets.

Este artículo investiga el comportamiento de manada entre inversores en los mercados bursátiles de Brasil, Chile, Colombia y México desde enero de 2013 hasta diciembre de 2022.

Analizamos datos libres de sesgo de supervivencia de rendimientos diarios de acciones, empleando una medida que refleja la desviación transversal de los rendimientos de las acciones con respecto al consenso del mercado.

Se observa un comportamiento de anti-manada significativo en Brasil y México, mientras que en Chile y Colombia se encuentran resultados consistentes con modelos racionales de valoración de activos. La pandemia de COVID-19 generalmente intensifica las tendencias de comportamiento de anti-manada. Se notan asimetrías significativas en el comportamiento de anti-manada durante diferentes tendencias de mercado y niveles de volatilidad. Además, los movimientos extremos en los precios del petróleo tienden a estar asociados con un comportamiento anti-manada más pronunciado, y los efectos parecen estar sincronizados en los cuatro mercados.

Nuestros hallazgos con respecto a la sincronización en la dinámica de manada sugieren desafíos para realizar los beneficios de la diversificación internacional en los mercados de la región.

Los efectos cruzados entre países indican que la dinámica de manada puede desempeñar un papel crucial en la precipitación de crisis financieras regionales.

Por primera vez, examinamos diversas características del comportamiento de manada en los mercados de muestra, incluido el impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19, los impulsores psicológicos y económicos del fenómeno, y la sincronización en la dinámica de manada entre los cuatro mercados.

This paper aims to examine the influence of religious backgrounds and religiosity on three dimensions of household finance (the decision to hold secured debt, the likelihood of being in a state of financial distress and the likelihood of being in a state of financial well-being) across a large sample of European countries.

The study uses data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data set, spanning from 2004 to 2018. The authors conduct regression analysis to examine the relationship between religion and household financial choices.

The study finds that belonging to a predominantly Catholic or Orthodox (Protestant) country is negatively (positively) associated with the likelihood of holding a mortgage. Belonging to a mostly Catholic (Protestant) country is negatively (positively) associated with the likelihood of being in a state of financial distress. Belonging to a predominantly Catholic (Protestant) country is positively (negatively) associated with the likelihood of being in a state of financial well-being. These relationships remain robust after controlling for a large number of demographic and economic variables.

In this paper, the authors analyze for the first time the impact of religion on household finance in a wide range of European countries. It is also the first time that the EU-SILC database, which aggregates data on more than three million European households, is used for the study of this topic.

This study aims to examine the deterrent effect of the Market Abuse Directive (MAD) introduced in the European Union in 2003. The purpose is to evaluate whether the Directive has resulted in significant changes in pre-bid stock price run-ups observed in mergers and acquisitions within the Portuguese, Spanish and Greek stock markets.

The study analyzes a sample of 199 mergers and acquisitions in the aforementioned stock markets. The magnitude of pre-bid stock price run-ups is investigated as an indicator of illegal insider trading. The effects of the MAD, toehold positions of bidders and industry similarity between firms involved in the deals are assessed using statistical analysis.

The study’s findings indicate that the MAD has been ineffective in deterring investors from trading on non-public information. Pre-announcement price run-ups remain significant, suggesting ongoing illegal insider trading practices. Additionally, the research reveals that pre-bid stock price run-ups tend to be lower when bidders have established a larger toehold position in the target and when the firms involved in the deal belong to the same industry.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the ineffectiveness of the MAD in deterring illegal insider trading. The findings highlight the limitations of increasing penalties without an effective monitoring system in place. Furthermore, the study identifies additional factors, such as toehold positions and industry similarity, that influence the magnitude of pre-announcement price run-ups in mergers and acquisitions.

This paper aims to explore the effects of a surge in tourism short-term rentals (STR) on housing prices in municipalities within Portugal’s two largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

This study applies the difference-in-differences (DiD) methodology by using a feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimator in a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) equation model.

The results show that the liberalization of STR had a significant impact on housing prices in municipalities where a higher percentage of housing was transferred to tourism. This transfer led to a leftward shift in the housing supply and a consequent increase in housing prices. These price increases are much higher than those found in previous studies on the same subject. The authors also found that municipalities with more STR had low housing elasticities, which indicates that adjustments to the transfer of real estate from housing to tourism were made by increasing house prices, and not by increasing supply quantities.

The study suggests that an unforeseen consequence of allowing property owners to transfer the use of real estate from housing to other services (namely, tourism) was extreme housing price increases due to inelastic housing supply.

This is the first time that the DiD methodology has been applied in real estate markets using FGLS in a SUR equation model and the authors show that it produces more precise estimates than the baseline OLS FE. The authors also find evidence of a supply shock provoked by STR.