Limits of arbitrage

  • 详情 Anomalies and Expected Market Return—Evidence from China A-Shares
    This paper is the first study to systematically discuss the predictive power of crosssectional asset pricing anomalies on aggregate market excess return time series in the Chinese A-share market. The paper summarizes the anomalies and uses linear methods with different shrinkage techniques to extract predictive information from highdimensional long-short anomaly portfolio returns datasets. We find that long-short anomaly portfolio returns show highly significant out-of-sample predictive power of aggregate market excess returns, both statistically and economically. Unlike similar studies on U.S. stocks, the predictive power stems from stronger limits of arbitrage in the short-leg when using bid-ask spread as a proxy but from stronger limits of arbitrage in the long-leg when idiosyncratic volatility or market capitalization is used as proxies.
  • 详情 Dissecting the Lottery-Like Anomaly: Evidence from China
    This paper dissects the lottery-like anomaly in Chinese A-share stocks by decomposing total stock returns into overnight and intraday returns. Our findings indicate that the negative overnight returns are concentrated among lottery-like stocks, and the lottery-like anomaly is mainly driven by the overnight returns component. Considering the unique Chinese institutional features, our mechanism analysis reveals that the overnight returns induced lottery-like anomaly is more pronounced in stocks with high retail investors' gambling preference and high limits of arbitrage. Overall, our results suggest that investors optimism and trading constraints have a substantial impact on market efficiency in China.
  • 详情 Idiosyncratic Risk, Costly Arbitrage, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns
    This paper examines the impact of idiosyncratic risk on the cross-section of weekly stock returns from 1963 to 2006. I use an exponential GARCH model to forecast expected idiosyncratic volatility and employ a combination of the size e§ect, value premium, return momentum and short-term reversal to measure relative mispricing. I ?nd that stock returns monotonically increase in idiosyncratic risk for relatively undervalued stocks and monotonically decrease in idiosyncratic risk for relatively overvalued stocks. This phenomenon is robust to various subsamples and industries, and cannot be explained by risk factors or ?rm characteristics. Further, transaction costs, short-sale constraints and information uncertainty cannot account for the role of idiosyncratic risk. Overall, these ?ndings are consistent with the limits of arbitrage arguments and demonstrate the importance of idiosyncratic risk as an arbitrage cost.
  • 详情 Idiosyncratic Risk, Costly Arbitrage, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns
    This paper examines the impact of idiosyncratic risk on the cross-section of weekly stock returns from 1963 to 2006. I use an exponential GARCH model to forecast expected idiosyncratic volatility and employ a combination of the size effect, value premium, return momentum and short-term reversal to measure relative mispricing. I ?find that stock returns monotonically increase in idiosyncratic risk for relatively undervalued stocks and monotonically decrease in idiosyncratic risk for relatively overvalued stocks. This phenomenon is robust to various subsamples and industries, and cannot be explained by risk factors or ?rm characteristics. Further, transaction costs, short-sale constraints and information uncertainty cannot account for the role of idiosyncratic risk. Overall, these ?findings are consistent with the limits of arbitrage arguments and demonstrate the importance of idiosyncratic risk as an arbitrage cost.