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Corporate usage of financial derivatives, information asymmetry, and insider trading
Author(s) -
Nguyen Hoa,
Faff Robert,
Hodgson Allan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of futures markets
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.88
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1096-9934
pISSN - 0270-7314
DOI - 10.1002/fut.20402
Subject(s) - information asymmetry , insider trading , business , derivative (finance) , insider , alternative trading system , financial economics , monetary economics , algorithmic trading , finance , economics , political science , law
This article investigates whether financial derivative usage by Australian corporations constitutes information asymmetry when proxied by profitable trading in the firms' securities by insiders. The findings show that insiders who trade in companies that employ derivatives make larger purchase returns compared to insiders in nonuser firms with regard to trading identity, trading intensity, variability of usage, volume of trading, and industry effects. A plausible explanation is that asymmetry is driven by derivative traders who undertake noisy transactions in firms where risk outcomes were previously transparent. Excess returns are confined to purchase transactions consistent with insiders primarily selling for noninformation reasons. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 30:25–47, 2010