Matching and the Estimated Impact of Inter-listing (updated July 2003)

sing 1998 trade and quote data for securities listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, this paper employs nonparametric estimation to measure the effect of being interlisted on a US exchange on: (i) the daily number of trades, trading volume, and dollar trading volume; (ii) the number of inside quote revisions and the percentage bid-ask spread; (iii) registered trader gross trading revenues; (iv) composition of order flow between orders submitted for client, non-client, and registered trader accounts. Unlike previous studies, I use kernel-based matching estimates in addition to variants of the standard nearest-neighbor approach for constructing matched samples of interlisted stocks and non-interlisted stocks. I explore the sensitivity of results to: (i) using different bandwidth parameters and caliper-matching criteria; (ii) using different matching characteristics; (iii) the exclusion/inclusion of firms. I highlight instances when kernel-based and nearest-neighbor matching estimation techniques produce significantly different results and thereby argue that results based on standard matching techniques commonly employed in the finance literature should be interpreted cautiously.Matched samples, kernel estimation; interlisted securities; responsible registered trader

Long-term information, short-lived derivative securities

This paper explores strategic trade in short-lived derivative securities by agents that possess long-term information about an underlying asset. In contrast to trading equity, where an informed agent will ultimately benefit from his trades, trading short-lived securities is profitable only if the price impounds the private information before expiry. A consequence is that a risk neutral informed agent's holdings of the short-lived security affect his trading behavior: Past informed trading leads to greater future informed trading. The shorter horizon in which information must be impounded for a short-lived security to pay off makes an informed agent more reluctant to trade at earlier dates. By characterizing the conditions under which liquidity traders choose to incur extra costs to roll over their short-term positions rather than trade in longer-term derivative securities, we provide a possible explanation for why most markets for longer-term derivative securities have little liquidity and large bid-ask spreads.Private information, liquidity, derivative securities, strategic trade

Uncovering the unpublished chamber music of George Frederick Boyle Volume I: Dissertation

This dissertation examines the chamber works for piano and strings by Australian--‐born American composer, pianist, and teacher, George Frederick Boyle (1886–1948). Boyle was somewhat of a prodigy in his younger years and contributed much to Australia’s burgeoning concert scene. In 1905 he left Australia to study with Ferruccio Busoni, and from 1910 until his death he lived and worked in the United States, where he was on the faculty of some of the most prestigious music schools. Despite Boyle\u27s eminence as a pianist, composer and educator, today he is almost forgotten. This dissertation offers a reappraisal of George Boyle through focussing on his chamber works for piano and strings. Editions of Boyle’s chamber works and a DVD recorded performance of these same works are included as part of this research project

Long-term Information, Short-lived Securities

We explore strategic trade in short-lived securities by agents who possess long-term information. Trading short-lived securities is profitable only if enough of the private information becomes public prior to contract expiration; otherwise the security will worthlessly expire. We highlight how this results in trading behavior fundamentally different from that observed in standard models of informed trading in equity. Specifically, we show that informed agents are more reluctant to trade shorter-term securities too far in advance of when their information will necessarily be made public, and that existing positions in a shorter-term security make future purchases more attractive. Because informed agents prefer longer-term securities, this can make trading shorter-term contracts more attractive for liquidity traders. We characterize the conditions under which liquidity traders choose to incur extra costs to roll over short-term positions rather than trade in distant contracts, providing an explanation for why most longer-term derivative security markets have little liquidity and large bid-ask spreads.Priviate information, derivative securities, rolling the hedge, fixed transaction costs

Cross Hedging with Single Stock Futures

This study evaluates the efficiency of cross hedging with the new single stock futures (SSF) contracts recently introduced in the United States. We use matched sample estimation techniques to select SSF contracts that will reduce the basis risk of crossing hedging and will yield the most efficient hedging portfolio. Employing multivariate matching techniques with cross-sectional matching characteristics, we can improve hedging efficiency while at the same time overcoming the contingency of the correlation between spot and futures prices on the sample period and length. Overall, we find that the best hedging performance is achieved through a portfolio that is hedged with market index futures and a SSF matched by both historical return correlation and cross-sectional matching characteristics. We also find it preferable to retain the chosen SSF contracts for the whole out-of-sample period but to re-estimate the optimal hedge ratio for each rolling window.

Registered trader participation during the Toronto Stock Exchange's pre-opening session

This paper documents order submission strategies during the Toronto Stock Exchange's pre-opening session. I find that the registered trader (RT) actively participates in the market opening despite not being able to set the opening price directly and not having an apparent informational advantage. I find that RT opening trades are profitable, are able to moderate overnight price changes, and may be motivated, in part, by inventory adjustment concerns. I focus on interlisted stocks that simultaneously open for trading under two different mechanisms and show how the comparative levels of pre-trade market transparency of each exchange impacts RT profits and participation.Registered trader, market transparency, interlisted securities, price discovery

Explicit and implicit narratives in the co-design of videogames

This paper discusses key narrative design challenges posed by an on-going multi-disciplinary research project, Maritime City. The paper focuses on how narrative has, in different ways, been at the centre of the design process and on how principles of co-design might be used and adapted to address the challenges posed by the project