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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 129 No. 1 2018

How does the stock market absorb shocks?

Murray Z. Frank1; Ali Sanati2

1 University of Minnesota · 2 American University

Abstract

Using a comprehensive set of news stories, we find a stark difference in market responses to positive and negative price shocks accompanied by new information. When there is a news story about a firm, positive price shocks are followed by reversal, while negative ones result in drift. This is interpreted as the stock market overreaction to good news and underreaction to bad news. These seemingly contradictory results can be explained in a single framework, considering the interaction of retail investors with attention bias, and arbitrageurs with short-run capital constraints. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that both patterns are stronger when the attention bias is stronger, and when the arbitrage capital is scarce.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.04.002
Volume
129
Issue
1
Pages
136-153
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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