Chapter 18.

The Common Stock

Market

• Types of markets
• Trading mechanics
• Stock market indexes
• Pricing efficiency
Common stock

• equity security
• ownership
• entitled to distributed earnings
• entitled to share of assets
I. Type of Markets

• exchanges
• OTC trading of
• unlisted stocks & listed stocks
• direct trading
Exchanges

• physical location for trading

• trading by members
• own a seat on the exchange
• stock traded on exchange are listed
stocks
NYSE
• the “Big Board”
• about 2800 listed U.S. companies
• & 450 non-U.S. companies
• $18 trillion market value (2/04)
• 1366 seats (fixed)
• seat price $2 million 2002
• 10/2003 $1.35 million
• stocks trade at post on the trading
floor
• 20 posts, trading about 100 stocks
• each stock has one specialist
• 10 specialist firms, 470 specialists
• each specialist has 5-10 stocks
• process trades from floor brokers
(5%) and electronically (95%)
role of the specialist
• MUST maintain a fair and orderly market
for stock
• act as buyer or seller as needed (10% of
trades)
• match buyers and sellers
• maintain order priority
the future of the specialist

• may be phased on with next 5-10

years
• recent SEC fines for improper
trading for several major firms
AMEX

• merged w/ Nasdaq 1998

• specializes in equity derivative
securities and closed-end funds
Regional exchanges

• stocks may be listed on both NYSE

and regional exchange
• 5 regional exchanges
• cheaper seat prices
OTC markets

• electronic network of dealers all over

the world
• ECNs
• electronic communication
networks
• more than one dealer per stock
• not obligated to make a market
Nasdaq

• not the only OTC system, but the

largest
• over 4000 companies listed
• mkt. value $2 trillion (2/28/03)
• leader in daily share volume
• over 500 dealers
• listing requirements
II. Trading Mechanics

• types of orders
• short selling
• buying on the margin
• institutional trading
Types of orders
• instructions from investors to
brokers
• market order
• buy/sell order to be executed at
best price
-- get lowest price for buy order
-- get highest price for sell order
• market order (cont.)
• market orders given priority in
trading
• no guarantee of execution price
-- price could rise/fall from time
order is placed to time it is
executed
• limit order
• buy/sell order where investor
specifies price range
• “buy at $50 or less”
• “sell at $52 or more”
• specialist records orders in
limit order book
• investor sets reservation price
BUT
• no guarantee that limit order will
be executed
• stop order
• order lies dormant
• turns into market order when
certain price (“the stop”) is
reached
• “buy if price rises to $60”
• “sell if price falls to $58”
-- stop loss order
• investor does not have to watch market
• but in a volatile market stop could be
triggered prematurely
-- end up trading unnecessarily
• stop limit order
• turns into limit order when stop is
reached
• “buy if price rises to $60, but only
is executed at $65 or less”
• market if touched order
• turns into market order if certain
price is reached
• “buy if price falls to $55”
• “sell if price rises to $62”
how long is an order good?

• fill or kill order

• executed when reaches trading
floor, or canceled
• good until canceled/open order
• is good indefinitely
order size
• round lots
• lots of 100 shares
• odd lots
• less than 100 shares
• more difficult to trade
• block trades
• 10,000 shares or $200,000 value
short selling
• sale of borrowed stock
• profit from belief that stock price is
too high will fall soon
• how?
• borrow stock through broker
• sell stock
• buy and return later
• short selling could further destabilize
falling prices
• tick test rules on exchange
• short sales allowed if
• uptick or zero uptick in price for
previous trades:
• $20.75, $21 (uptick)
• $20.75, $20.75 (zero upick)
• $20.75, $20 (downtick)
• so short sellers
• believe price will fall and SOON
• but price not currently falling
• face unlimited losses if price rises
Buying on the margin

• buyer borrows part of purchase price

of stock, using stock as collateral
• borrow at call money rate
• Fed sets initial margin requirement
• minimum cash payment
• 50% since 1975
• if stock price falls
• collateral worth less
• if collateral worth only 125% of loan
(maintenance margin)
-- margin call
-- owner must put up more cash or sell
stock
• margin calls can worsen stock crash
example
• 1000 shares, $20 per share
• $20,000 cost
• $10,000 cash, borrow $10,000
• leverage
• gains/losses on $20,000 capital
• but tied up only $10,000 capital
• if prices falls to $12,
• value of stock $12,000
• below 125% of $10,000 loan
• get a margin call
Institutional trading

• vs. retail trades

• institutional trades are larger
• special execution
• over 50% of NYSE share volume
block trades

• large # shares in one stock

• executed in “upstairs” market
• other firms directly take other side
of trade
• remainder executed on trading floor
or Nasdaq (downstairs)
program trades

• large # shares, different stocks

• used by mutual funds for asset
allocation
• want
• low commissions
• prevent frontrunning
what is frontrunning?

• brokers trade ahead of program

trade
• to benefit from anticipated price
movements
• due to large trade
example
• broker buys ahead of large buy order
• broker buys first
• large buy order pushes up price
• broker’s holdings increase in value
• result
• frontrunning starts to push up
price, so firm does not get best
price
agency basis

• brokers bid for trade by commission

• low commission, but
• frontrunning likely
agency incentive agreement

• set benchmark value for trade

• based on last day’s prices
• if broker does better
• gets commission + bonus
• higher commission, but
• frontrunning less likely
III. Stock market indicators

• measure average performance of a

group of stocks
• different indexes are highly
correlated:
• DJIA & S&P 500 .991 (1990s)
• DJIA & NYSE .95
indexes differ due to

• stocks included in the index

• weighting of stocks
• equal, price, value
• average
• arithmetic
• geometric
stock exchange index

• includes all stocks listed on

exchange
• NYSE Composite
• Nasdaq Composite
• (both value weighted)
subjectively selected index

• organization picks group of stocks

to measure
• Dow Jones Industrial average
• S&P 500
DJIA
• price weighted
• 30 large blue chip companies
• cross section of industries
• leaders
• large movements in DJIA may halt
trading on NYSE
S&P 500

• 500 large blue chip companies

• value weighted
• most popular benchmark for index
funds
objectively selected index

• inclusion of stock based on objective

criteria
• market value
• Wilshire 5000
• all publicly traded stocks
• Russell 2000
• largest 3000 companies, then take
smallest 2000 of those
IV. Pricing Efficiency of the
Stock Market

• what information is reflected in

current stock prices?
• what implications does this have
for active vs. passive investment
strategies?
3 levels of price efficiency

• what are they?

• implication?
• evidence for U.S. stock markets?
Weak form efficiency

• current stock prices reflect

• information about past prices
• and trading history
implication

• if markets are weak-form efficient

• using past price/trading pattern to
predict future stock prices will not
work
• so, technical analysis will fail to
beat the market
evidence

• U.S. stock market is weak-form

efficient
• technical analysts do not beat the
market
• especially after trading costs
Semi strong form efficiency

• current stock prices reflect

• all publicly available information
relevant to stock
-- economic data
-- financial statements
implication

• using public info to predict future

stock prices will not work
• fundamental analysis will fail to
beat market
evidence

• mixed
• Yes
• most actively managed portfolios
do not outperform randomly
selected portfolios
• No.
• certain pricing anomalies persist
for long periods of time
• January effect
• size effect
Strong form efficiency

• current stock prices reflect all

information
• public and private
implication

• impossible to predict future stock

prices
• stock prices are a random walk
evidence

• U.S. stock market is not strong form

efficient
• why?
• corporate insiders consistently
outperform market
• & they have access to private info
active strategy

• using fundamental or technical

analysis to select stocks to buy/sell
• growth, sector, value funds
• trading on this info increases
• trading costs
• tax consequences
• odds of working are low
passive strategy
• believe market is efficient, just
capture long-run returns of market
• buy-and-hold diversified portfolio
• index funds
• lower expenses, defer taxes
• index funds outperform most actively
managed funds