Publication Type

Conference Paper

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

1-2012

Abstract

We develop and test a frog-in-the-pan hypothesis that predicts investors are less attentive to information arriving continuously in small amounts than to information with the same cumulative stock price implications arriving in large amounts at discrete timepoints. Intuitively, we hypothesize that a series of gradual frequent changes attracts less attention than infrequent dramatic changes. Consistent with our frog-in-the-pan hypothesis, we find strong evidence that continuous information induces stronger and more persistent return continuation. Over a six-month holding period, momentum decreases monotonically from 8.86% for stocks with continuous information during their formation period to 2.91% for stocks with discrete information. Higher media coverage and higher analyst coverage are associated with more discrete and more continuous information, respectively.

Discipline

Finance and Financial Management | Portfolio and Security Analysis

Research Areas

Finance

Publication

American Financial Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, 6-8 January 2012

City or Country

Chicago, IL, USA

Additional URL

https://www.nd.edu/~zda/LTG.pdf

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