Should U.S. investors hold foreign stocks?

U.S. investors have traditionally been reluctant to acquire foreign securities_in part, perhaps, because they fear that restrictions on trading in foreign markets will sharply limit any gains they might realize from diversifying their portfolios. An analysis of the effects of one type of restriction, short-sale constraints, on stock returns between 1976 and 1999 suggests that investing in emerging market stocks offers substantial benefits even when a ban on short sales is in place.Investments, Foreign - United States ; Financial markets ; International finance

Electronic trading on futures exchanges

Although the open outcry method is still the best way to trade highly active contracts on futures exchanges, electronic systems can improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of trading some types of futures and options. In recent years, the volume of electronic trades on futures exchanges has more than doubled, and it should continue to grow rapidly.Futures

Financial amplification mechanisms and the Federal Reserve’s supply of liquidity during the crisis

New York Fed economists Asani Sarkar and Jeffrey Shrader examine the Federal Reserve’s recent liquidity actions in the context of studies on financial amplification mechanisms, whereby an initial financial sector shock triggers substantially larger shocks elsewhere in the sector and in the broader economy. Presented at "Central Bank Liquidity Tools and Perspectives on Regulatory Reform" a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, February 19-20, 2009.Federal Reserve System ; Liquidity (Economics) ; Financial crises

Securitizing property catastrophe risk

The trading of property catastrophe risk using standard financial instruments such as options and bonds enables insurance companies to hedge their exposure by transferring risk to investors, who take positions on the occurrence and cost of catastrophes. Although these property catastrophe risk instruments are relatively new products, they have already established an important link between the insurance industry and the U.S. capital market.Insurance

Joint provision of public goods with incomplete information about costs

Includes bibliographical references (p. 50)

Do Brokers Misallocate Customer Trades? Evidence From Futures Markets

In the context of futures markets, we study whether brokers allocate more favorable trades to their own accounts, and less favorable trades to their customers. We find that, within a thirty minute trading bracket, brokers on average buy at a lower price and sell at a higher price for their own accounts relative to their customers. We show evidence that brokers' price advantage may be compensation for providing liquidity to the market when brokers trade for their own accounts, but no evidence that they are due to brokers' superior information, or to greater effort by brokers when trading for themselves. Consistent with the idea that, in a competitive market for brokerage services, brokers may pass on some of their profits to customers, we find that brokers who trade for themselves also provide superior execution for their customers, relative to brokers who do not trade for themselves.futures, brokers, trading

Customer flow, intermediaries, and the discovery of the equilibrium riskfree rate

Macro announcements change the equilibrium riskfree rate. We find that treasury prices reflect part of the impact instantaneously, but intermediaries rely on their customer order flow in the 15 minutes after the announcement to discover the full impact. We show that this customer flow informativeness is strongest at times when analyst forecasts of macro variables are highly dispersed. We study 30 year treasury futures to identify the customer flow. We further show that intermediaries appear to benefit from privately recognizing informed customer flow, as, in the cross-section, their own-account trade profitability correlates with access to customer orders, controlling for volatility, competition, and the announcement surprise. These results suggest that intermediaries learn about equilibrium riskfree rates through customer orders

Liquidity Risk, Credit Risk, and the Federal Reserve\u27s Responses to the Crisis

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report