In the US, shareholders can form a class action to sue a company under S10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act for allegedly releasing misleading information, or for failing to disclose material information. The substantial cost of litigation, and its associated impact on shareholder value, has prompted debate over whether to reform access to the shareholder class action mechanism. However, the debate is as yet unguided by any study of the long-term financial impact on firms involved in litigation.
Summary Thesis 01-03-16Solvency II is a European Union (EU) legislative program that introduces a harmonised insurance regulatory regime across the region. The program is one of the first insurance regulations in the world to follow the Basel Accord approach, with a 3-pillar structure that covers capital requirements, risk management and disclosure requirements. In Australia, the Life and General Insurance Capital (LAGIC) regime, which governs life and general insurers, follows a similar approach. In common with Solvency II, LAGIC adopts a risk-based approach for insurers, aimed at tailoring insurers’ capital requirements to their actual risk exposure. This is because the insurance industry is widely considered to be of systemic importance to the financial sector of the economy. This study focuses on Pillar 1, which deals with the capital requirements of the insurance regulations.
Summary Thesis 01-03-16The shift from defined benefit to defined contribution superannuation schemes within developed countries has correspondingly increased the importance of retirement savings and investment plans. Variable annuities (VAs) with guaranteed minimum benefits (GMBs) are gaining in popularity as products that can meet the demands of the ageing population. However, guaranteeing policyholders a minimum level of return exposes insurance providers to equity risk.
Summary Thesis 01-03-16Are rules and their enforcement effective at mitigating insider trading? A study shows that rules and surveillance together have the potential to mitigate the perpetration of market manipulation but also to exacerbate the profits from such manipulative activities.
Summary Full Article 19-03-15Price discovery (as an element of market efficiency) is one of the cornerstones of market quality the other being market fairness.
Summary 23-01-15Housing affordability in Australia has been in decline for more than two decades. Over the same period, the value of superannuation assets has risen strongly.
SummaryView paper 15-12-14Managers and major shareholders typically have an information advantage over outside investors when trading a company’s shares.
Summary 15-12-14The impact of the GFC in Europe has been, or perhaps remains, arguably more severe than the Great Depression in terms of breadth, depth and persistence.
Summary 15-12-14Increasing life expectancy rates are extending the liability profiles of annuity income providers. However, the challenge of devising asset allocation strategies to fund these liabilities is complicated by a lack of appropriate assets.
Summary 15-12-14Concerns regarding the prevalence of manipulation of closing prices have prompted substantial changes to the mechanisms used to close trading at stock exchanges around the world.
Summary 15-12-14Directors execute trades in their companies’ shares for a variety of reasons. Their actions may have information value for other investors seeking to mimic these strategies.
SummaryView Paper 15-12-14Evidence from UK interest rate futures market reveals that traders have been “drowning” the market with oversized orders, increasing their allocation under a pure pro-rata matching algorithm.
Summary 14-11-14Seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) are widely regarded as one of the most important capital structure events for listed companies. CMCRC researchers show brokers affiliated with SEO managers gain additional market share during SEOs as compared to unaffiliated brokers.
Summary Full Article 31-10-14A new study by CMCRC researchers suggests that companies may be able to influence the level of algorithmic trading (AT) by adjusting their price level.
Summary Full Article 08-08-14Motivated by ongoing debates on investment-cash flow sensitivity (ICFS), its relation to firm-level financial constraints and its documented decline in the U.S., we investigate the determinants of cross-country and time-series variation in ICFS.
Full Article 20-05-14A new study by CMCRC researchers James Melouney and Dr. Matthew Clifton report that a trading strategy based on short-selling information can be used to develop several stock portfolios, achieving annual returns ranging from 0.2118% to 6.3015% after transaction costs.
Summary 01-05-14CMCRC research reports the efficiency of opening prices is associated with the stock- specific open-auction sequence on the ASX. The sequential nature of the Australian opening auction implies that some stocks always open before other.
Summary Full Article 21-04-14An emulation fund collects trade signals from a sponsor’s multi-manager portfolio (e.g. a superannuation fund that hires a number of underlying active managers to make trading decisions) and rebalances on a lagged basis to match its holdings.
Summary Full Article 02-12-13Our paper is among the first to provide an empirical assessment as to whether High Frequency Trading (HFT) has a positive effect on market fairness.
Summary News Release Full Article 06-11-13Our research shows that the volume traded by insiders is positively linked to the value of their insider information and negatively related to the likely penalty they will receive if detected by market regulators.
Summary Full Article 09-10-13There are certain stocks with similar characteristics to lottery tickets, though with a very small chance of winning and a negative average return, why would any investor choose to purchase such “lottery stocks”?
Summary Press Release Full Article 01-10-13A new study investigates whether an investment strategy which rotates between different investment styles based on macroeconomic signals adds economic value using stock and fund level data.
Summary Full Article 18-09-13