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Journal of Financial Intermediation Vol. 4 No. 2 1995

The Incentive to Sell Financial Market Information

Michael J. Fishman; K. M. Hagerty

Northwestern University

Abstract

Investment advisory firms and brokerage firms hire analysts to uncover profitable securities investment opportunities. Then these firms sell the information (either directly or indirectly) to others. Why? Given that the information has value, why do these firms not keep the information to themselves and trade solely for their own accounts? Because of competition, information is more valuable when fewer people trade on the information. This paper shows that selling information is a strategic response by competing informed traders. Specifically, it is a means for informed traders to commit to trade aggressively, thereby inducing other informed traders to trade less aggressively. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G10, D82.

DOI
10.1006/jfin.1995.1005
Volume
4
Issue
2
Pages
95-115
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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