Stealth-trading : Which traders ’ trades move stock prices ?

Abstract

Using audit trail data for a sample of NYSE firms we show that medium-size trades are associated with a disproportionately large cumulative stock price change relative to their proportion of all trades and volume. This result is consistent with the predictions of Barclay and Warner’s (1993) stealth-trading hypothesis. We find that the source of this disproportionately large cumulative price impact of medium-size trades is trades initiated by institutions. This result is robust to various sensitivity checks. Our findings appear to confirm street lore that institutions are informed traders. # 2001 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. JEL classification: G12; G14; D82