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Journal of Finance Vol. 74 No. 1 2019

Financial Markets Where Traders Neglect the Informational Content of Prices

Erik Eyster; Matthew Rabin; Dimitri Vayanos1,2

1 London Chest Hospital · 2 London School of Economics and Political Science

open access

Abstract

We model a financial market where some traders of a risky asset do not fully appreciate what prices convey about others' private information. Markets comprising solely such “cursed” traders generate more trade than those comprising solely rationals. Because rationals arbitrage away distortions caused by cursed traders, mixed markets can generate even more trade. Per‐trader volume in cursed markets increases with market size; volume may instead disappear when traders infer others' information from prices, even when they dismiss it as noisier than their own. Making private information public raises rational and “dismissive” volume, but reduces cursed volume given moderate noninformational trading motives.

DOI
10.1111/jofi.12729
Volume
74
Issue
1
Pages
371-399
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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