Narrow Results

The use and effect of derivatives and short selling by US equity and bond open-end mutual funds are studied using a large and unique database. We find that the likelihood of their use is positively related to fund size, family size, and fund turnover for both fund types except for short selling by equity funds from larger families. Our findings suggest that funds that use derivatives exhibit significantly higher benchmark-adjusted performances based on both gross- and net-of-fees returns. This is done without adversely affecting market betas, net expense ratios (NERs), or brokerage fees as a proportion of total net assets (TNA). We find that for bond funds derivative use is negatively associated with non-systematic risk and short selling use is positively associated with total and systematic risk.

We investigate the accrual anomaly by examining the stock market reaction around the release of short interest information for firms with high accruals. We show that arbitrage activity, proxied by short interest, focuses on mispricing of firms with high accruals. In particular, we provide evidence that high accrual firms experience significant negative returns when high short interest levels are announced. In contrast, the announcement effect does not vary by short selling activity for low accrual firms. Our findings are consistent with the view that the accrual anomaly is due to overpricing.

We study the pricing of exchange traded funds (ETFs) and the associated arbitrage trading of them in the primary and secondary markets. We find a direct relation between primary and secondary market trading that is consistent with market-makers using the primary market to hedge their inventory risk in the secondary market, as well as to facilitate arbitrage. Such trading in both markets keeps ETF prices in line with their net asset value. We conclude that the existence of the primary market enhances secondary market efficiency.