Insider Trading Disclosure Research Articles

The effectiveness of insider trading disclosure policies: US and EU comparison

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of financial market rules in protecting minorities.Design/methodology/approachThe study compares two alternative disclosure rules on insider trading, namely, the market abuse directive (Directive 2004/72/EC), inspired from the United State (US) insider trading regulation enacted by the Sarbanes–Oxley act and the transparency directive enacted by the European (Directive 2004/109/EC) dealing with the crossing of the shareholding threshold. To investigate which one is more effective in signaling reserved information, and thus in reducing information asymmetry, the authors run an event study on the French context, where both regulations are adopted. The data were hand collected from the French stock exchange securities commissions during the two years following the implementation of the two regulations in 2004. The final sample consists of 363 insiders trading and 35 crossing shareholding thresholds for 10 top French firms during the period 2006-2007.FindingsThe results show that the French market reacts significantly to insider trading, but poorly to the crossing shareholding thresholds. Abnormal returns are greater after insider purchases than after crossing up thresholds. These findings support the superiority of the insider disclosure regulation, as it has better information content and provides better protection to minorities.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes to the corporate governance literature by comparing two disclosure-trading policies. The authors conclude that regulation of disclosure of insider trading along the lines of US disclosure rules is more informative to the market and thus more relevant and important than disclosure of cross-threshold trades.Practical implicationsThe study contributes to the corporate governance literature by comparing two disclosure-trading policies. The authors conclude that regulation of disclosure of insider trading along the lines of US disclosure rules is more informative to the market and thus more relevant and important than disclosure of cross-threshold trades. This finding can be helpful for the securities lawmakers and regulators in the process of insider trading law enforcement.Originality/valuePrevious researchers approached the question of insider trading focusing on the identity of insiders. In the research, the authors address the question from another perspective, namely, the crossing of thresholds. Another methodological contribution of the study is the use of a market model that incorporates GARCH (generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic) effect and time-varying systematic risk parameter (β), which is recommended to tackle the classical event study problem of detecting the exact timing of the event.

Asset markets with insider trading disclosure rule and reselling constraint: An experimental analysis,

We investigate the impact of compulsory insider-trading disclosure and its combination with a mandatory holding rule on price predictability and asset mispricing. We modify the dynamic price-adjustment model to account for insiders’ private information. Our results show that insiders produce weakly-characterized price signals that induce a less than proportional price adjustment to the changes in the dividend value, in both markets with disclosure rule and holding requirement, in comparison with unregulated markets. A shift in insiders’ strategies from information-motivated to liquidity-motivated trading appears to fuel the impairment of price predictability in regulated markets. The exacerbation of asset mispricing in markets with holding restriction is characterized by a growth in the speculative transactions and loss-making trading proposals.

Can Insider Trading Information Be a Useful Tool for Investment Managers? A Review

Predominant finance theories by academics suggest that achieving consistent outsized returns in the stock market is not possible because the market is efficient. Can legal insider trading disclosure data reported to the SEC provide an effective tool for identifying investments?

Can Insider Trading Information be an Effective Tool for Investment Managers?

The Legend of Martha Stewart: Insider Trading For decades institutional investment managers and individual investors have searched for different ways to make outsized returns in the stock market. Finance theories were created by academics to suggest that this task is not possible because the market is efficient. However, as a scholar-practitioner, I have come to realize that Insider Trading disclosure data provides a unique information signal that can be used as an effect tool for identifying investments at the company level.

Market Fragmentation, Dissimulation, and the Disclosure of Insider Trades

We study insider trading disclosure in a dynamic model where a security is traded in two venues by an insider together with noise traders, and prices are set by competitive dealers in each location, under two alternative information regimes. We first posit that markets are informationally segmented, in that market makers are privy to the information gathered in their venue. In this case, fragmentation has no effect on the price discovery impact of insider trades' disclosure. We then allow market makers in a given venue to also observe the other venue's past period price as well as a noisy signal of that venue's order flow. In this case, we show that if markets are sufficiently pre-trade transparent, disclosure can impair price discovery.

Stock Market Reactions to Insider Trading Disclosures and their Determinants

상장기업의 내부자거래 정보는 매년 1만 여건을 상회할 정도로 빈번하게 공시되는 사항이다. 본 연구는 금융감독원 전자공시시스템을 통해 보고되는 내부자거래 공시의 정보효과를 검토하고, 투자자들의 시장반응을 결정하는 공시정보의 속성을 분석하였다. 2001년부터 2012년까지 공시된 30,120건의 내부자거래를 대상으로 분석한 주요결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 내부자거래 공시일 전․후에 걸쳐 유의한 시장반응이 관찰되었다. 이는 투자자들이 내부자거래 공시를 해당 기업의 가치평가와 관련하여 유용한 정보로 인식하고 있음을 의미한다. 둘째, 투자자들의 시장반응은 공시정보의 보고시차가 짧을수록 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 적시성이 높을수록 정보효과가 높아짐을 보여주는 결과이자, 2009년 2월의 자본시장법 시행에 따른 내부자거래 공시기한 단축이 증권시장의 효율성 제고에 기여하고 있음을 시사하는 결과이다. 셋째, 내부자의 매수거래는 차별적인 주가반응을 유도하는 한편 내부자의 매도거래는 차별적인 거래량반응을 유도하는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 투자자들이 내부자의 매수거래와 매도거래에 각각 달리 반응하고 있음을 의미한다. 마지막으로, 코스닥기업의 내부자거래 공시에 대한 거래량반응은 코스피기업보다 유의하게 높은 것으로 나타났다. 이는 정보비대칭이 높은 기업의 공시일수록 투자자들에게 전달하는 정보효과가 크게 나타남을 시사하는 결과이다.BR 내부자거래와 주가움직임의 관계를 분석한 국내 선행연구는 대부분 내부자거래의 초과이익 실현 여부를 검증하고 있으며, 이를 통해 내부자의 미공개정보 이용가능성을 제기하고 있다. 이에 비해, 본 연구는 내부자거래 공시의 정보효과를 밝히고 있다는 점에서 차별적 의미가 있다. 본 연구결과는 규제당국이나 시장참여자들이 내부자거래 공시에 대한 이해의 폭을 넓히는 데 기여할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

Insider Trading Filing and Intra-Industry Information Transfer

This paper examines whether insider trading disclosures have information transfer effects within the same industry. We find that on the dates an insider trade is filed with the SEC, the stock returns of industry peers are positively correlated with the direction of the trade, i.e., industry peers have positive (negative) returns when purchases (sales) are disclosed. This effect varies across firms: insider trading filings from industry leaders have stronger information transfer effects on their industry peers while rival firms experience less positive information transfer effects. Our results are driven by insider sales, prompting us to investigate the relation between insider selling and industry-level information. We find that insider selling occurs when industries are overvalued. Taken together, our evidence suggests that insider trading filings contain industry-level information and affect the stock returns of industry peers.

The Effect of Transparency on Insider Trading Disclosure

This paper documents the extent of errors in insider trading reports over the period 1988–2006. The proportion of reports with errors is over 40 percent in 1988 and falls to just over 10 percent in 2006. The improvement is largely attributable to regulatory changes that improved transparency: the shortening of disclosure deadlines and the implementation of an Internet-based reporting system. The authors offer some policy prescriptions for further reducing errors in insider trading disclosure.

Price, volume and spread effects associated with the expiry of lock-in agreements: Evidence from the Hong Kong IPO market

We examine the price, volume and bid–ask spread reactions to lock-in expiries in Hong Kong IPOs. We show that the lock-in expiry causes an increase in both trading volume and bid–ask spread, but no significant change in the share price. We attribute the absence of a price reaction to the fact that most of the Hong Kong IPO firms are controlled by one or two non-institutional shareholders who choose not to sell their shares after the lock-in expiry. Another plausible reason for the absence of a price reaction may be the period studied by this paper which follows the publication of a number of studies on lock-in expiry. The publication of the anomaly may have arbitraged away any gains internationally. The absence of significant abnormal returns around the lock-in expiry confirms the semi-strong form of the efficient market hypothesis. Our results are consistent with the European evidence, but contradict the findings of most US studies. We show that the volume and spread increases are not caused by the sales by locked-in insiders around the lock-in expiry. The volume increase may be caused by the presence of undisclosed insider transactions around the lock-in expiry. This may well be the case, since the insider trading disclosure requirement does not apply to transactions that result in a change of less than one percentage point to an insider holding. Finally, we show that the wider spread is likely to be caused by market makers charging high information rent to protect themselves against potential trading with informed insiders.

The Effect of Transparency on Insider Trading Disclosure

This paper documents the extent of errors in insider trading reports over the period 1988–2006. The proportion of reports with errors is over 40 percent in 1988 and falls to just over 10 percent in 2006. The improvement is largely attributable to regulatory changes that improved transparency: the shortening of disclosure deadlines and the implementation of an Internet-based reporting system. The authors offer some policy prescriptions for further reducing errors in insider trading disclosure.

The Determinants of Regulatory Compliance: An Analysis of Insider Trading Disclosures in Italy

This paper investigates the determinants of regulatory compliance in corporate organizations. Exploiting a unique enforcement and reporting framework for insider trading in Italy, we present three main findings. First, board governance, such as chief executive–chairman duality and the proportion of non-executive directors, does not increase the propensity of firms to comply with regulation. Second, family firms and firms with a high degree of separation of ownership from control are most likely to comply with regulation. Third, corporate ethos is more important in predicting regulatory compliance than explicit corporate governance structures.

Legal Corporate Insider Trading and the Price Impact of Private Information: Evidence for Germany

This study examines the information value of corporate insider trading disclosures for a sample of 490 German companies. Our results indicate that insiders selling stocks in their own company reveal negative information about the in- trinsic firm value. This is especially the case for large volume sale transactions. In addition, stock prices of smaller com- panies react stronger to insider transactions. Furthermore, insiders tend to time their transactions, selling shares after stock price increases and buying shares after stock price decreases.

The Determinants and Value Impact of Regulatory Compliance: An Analysis of Insider Trading Disclosures

This paper investigates the determinants of regulatory compliance and its effect on informational efficiency. Exploiting a unique enforcement and reporting framework for corporate insider trading in Italy, we present three main findings. First, board governance, such as chief executive-chairman duality and the proportion of non-executive directors, does not increase the propensity of firms to comply with regulation. Second, firms with concentrated ownership and control, together with those run by families and cooperatives are most likely to comply with regulation. Third, the market responds less to reporting by fully compliant firms and those with strong family control.

The Determinants and Value Impact of Regulatory Compliance: An Analysis of Insider Trading Disclosures

The Determinants and Value Impact of Regulatory Compliance: An Analysis of Insider Trading Disclosures

The informational content of insider trading disclosures: empirical results for the Polish stock market

In this paper, we try to answer the question as to whether insider trading disclosures convey valuable information to market participants, valuable in the sense of the profitability of an investment strategy that faithfully mirrors insider behaviour. Our interest in this subject is limited to the case of announcements concerning insider transactions issued over a 6 year-period on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). Initially, we use event study methodology to check whether insider trading disclosures are accompanied by a performance of stock returns as well as trading volume. Two different models generating expected returns (expected volume) are employed to verify the robustness of our results. The first of these is the regime switching model, with the results then being recalculated by using a GARCH-type model which seem to be most useful for dealing with some of the inconvenient statistical properties of stock return and trading volume data. Afterwards, a technique based on the reference return strategies is used to examine whether or not outsiders who imitate insider behaviour are able to profit from it. The major findings are as follows: firstly, announcements about the sale of stocks by insiders convey no information to market participants. Secondly, a statistically significant market response to insider disclosures of purchases of stocks in their own company can be observed in the three days prior to the announcement release for both return as well as trading volume series, and finally, outsiders who purchased stocks previously bought by insiders experience negative returns whereas outsiders disposing of stocks previously sold by insiders earned a return of 8.57% over the 6 month-period.