Identifying Corporate Speculation Reading Public Disclosures Why Firms Speculate

Abstract

To date, readers of financial statements are not able to identify speculation as risk-increasing activity from public corporate disclosures. We examine a unique regulatory environment, in which the regulating authority recommends additional FX-disclosures in excess of prevailing reporting standards and find that these optional publications enable, henceforth, the identification of speculative activities. Further, we help solve the puzzle of the determinants of speculation and find that frequent speculators are smaller, have more growth opportunities and possess lower internal resources, which indicates unprecedented empirical evidence for the convexity theories of Campbell & Kracaw (1999) and Adam, Dasgupta, & Titman (2007). Our findings substantiate the significance of an extended reporting with optional disclosures that might unlock numerous benefits for both share- and stakeholders.