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Short Interest and Frictions in the Flow of Information
Author(s) -
Blau Benjamin
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
financial management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.647
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1755-053X
pISSN - 0046-3892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-053x.2011.01187.x
Subject(s) - short interest ratio , economics , arbitrage , stock (firearms) , interest rate , econometrics , stock price , monetary economics , financial economics , mechanical engineering , paleontology , context (archaeology) , series (stratigraphy) , engineering , biology
This paper examines the correlation between short interest and price delay that parsimoniously measures the delay with which stock prices incorporate information. I find that price delay relates inversely to short interest indicating that short sellers reduce friction in the flow of information into stock prices. While price delay is shown to predict positive returns, this is mostly true in stocks with the least amount of short interest. Multivariate tests determine that the positive relationship between delay and future returns is decreasing in short interest. Results suggest that short sellers reduce delay and arbitrage the return premium commanded by delay.