Investor Overconfidence and Trading Volume

Authors: Statman, Meir; Thorley, Steven; Vorkink, Keith

Source: Review of Financial Studies, Volume 19, Number 4, 2006 , pp. 1531-1565(35)

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Abstract:

The proposition that investors are overconfident about their valuation and trading skills can explain high observed trading volume. With biased self-attribution, the level of investor overconfidence and thus trading volume varies with past returns. We test the trading volume predictions of formal overconfidence models and find that share turnover is positively related to lagged returns for many months. The relationship holds for both market-wide and individual security turnover, which we interpret as evidence of investor overconfidence and the disposition effect, respectively. Security volume is more responsive to market return shocks than to security return shocks, and both relationships are more pronounced in small-cap stocks and in earlier periods where individual investors hold a greater proportion of shares. (JEL G11, G12)

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhj032

Publication date: 2006-01-01

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The Review of Financial Studies is a major forum for the promotion and wide dissemination of significant new research in financial economics. As reflected by its broadly based editorial board, the Review balances theoretical and empirical contributions. The primary criteria for publishing a paper are its quality and importance to the field of finance, without undue regard to its technical difficulty. Finance is interpreted broadly to include the interface between finance and economics. The Review is sponsored by The Society for Financial Studies. The editors of the Review and officers of the Society are elected for limited terms.