You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Trade-size Clustering and Quantity Choice in Liquidity”,

Abstract This paper examines whether investors care more about trading their exact quantity demands at some times than at others. Using a new data set of foreign-exchange transactions, I find that customers trade more precise quantities at quarter-end, as evidenced by less trade-size clustering. Customers trade more odd lots and fewer round lots, while the number of trades and total volume are not significantly changed. I also find that the price impact of order flow is greater when customers care more about trading precise quantities. This work sheds new light on trade-size clustering and offers a potential explanation for time-series and cross-sectional variations in common liquidity measures. JEL classification: D4; G12; G1

Credit Ratings and Stock Liquidity

We analyze contemporaneous and predictive relations between credit ratings and measures of equity market liquidity and find that common measures of adverse selection, which reflect a portion of the uncertainty about future firm value, are larger when credit ratings are poorer. We also show that future rating changes can be predicted using current levels of adverse selection. Collectively, our results validate widely used microstructure measures of adverse selection and offer new insights into the value of credit ratings and the specific nature of the information they contain. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.