IQ from IP: simplifying search in portfolio choice

Chen, Huaizhi, Cohen, Lauren, Gurun, Umit, Lou, Dong ORCID: 0000-0002-5623-4338 and Malloy, Christopher (2020) IQ from IP: simplifying search in portfolio choice. Journal of Financial Economics, 138 (1). 118 - 137. ISSN 0304-405X

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Abstract

Using a novel database that tracks web traffic on the Security Exchange Commission's EDGAR server between 2004 and 2015, we show that institutional investors gather information on a very particular subset of firms and insiders, and their surveillance is very persistent over time. This tracking behavior has powerful implications for their portfolio choice and its information content. An institution that downloaded an insider trading filing by a given firm last quarter increases its likelihood of downloading an insider trading filing on the same firm by more than 41.3 percentage points this quarter. Moreover, the average tracked stock that an institution buys generates annualized alphas of over 12% relative to the purchase of an average non tracked stock. We find that institutional managers tend to track top executives and to share educational and locational commonalities with the specific insiders they choose to follow. Collectively, our results suggest that the information in tracked trades is important for fundamental firm value and is only revealed following the information-rich dual trading by insiders and linked institutions.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-f...
Additional Information:	© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Divisions:	LSE Finance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HG Finance
JEL classification:	G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G11 - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G14 - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies G - Financial Economics > G2 - Financial Institutions and Services > G23 - Pension Funds; Other Private Financial Institutions
Date Deposited:	08 Jul 2019 14:42
Last Modified:	15 Nov 2024 08:24
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/101133

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