Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2017

Abstract

We study the trading behavior of short sellers in the presence of economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Daily short selling activity at either the aggregate level or the individual stock level is increasing in the EPU index (Baker, Bloom and Davis, 2016). EPU has great explanatory power for short trading. Cross-sectional tests show that the increase in short interest under high political uncertainty is from shorting stocks characterized by higher mispricing, greater policy sensitivity, higher illiquidity, greater volatility or analyst dispersion. Short sellers earn abnormal profits by trading on public information related to EPU.

Keywords

Short selling, economic policy uncertainty, political uncertainty, trading, risk, mispricing

Discipline

Economic Policy | Finance and Financial Management

Identifier

10.2139/ssrn.2948291

Publisher

SSRN

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2948291

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