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Noise Trading in Small Markets
Author(s) -
PALOMINO FRÉDÉRIC
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1996.tb04079.x
Subject(s) - arbitrage , exploit , economics , nash equilibrium , stock (firearms) , financial economics , microeconomics , noise (video) , business , monetary economics , mechanical engineering , computer security , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering , image (mathematics)
Considering noise traders as agents with unpredictable beliefs, we show that in an imperfectly competitive market with risk averse investors, noise traders may earn higher expected utility than rational investors. This happens when, by deviating from the Nash equilibrium strategy, noise traders hurt rational investors more than themselves. It follows that the willingness of arbitrageurs to exploit noise traders' misperceptions is lower relative to a perfectly competitive economy. This result reinforces the theory that noise trading may explain closed‐end fund discounts and small firms' returns, since these markets are less competitive than the market for large firms' stock.