The Value of Active Investing: Can Active Institutional Investors Remove Excess Comovement of Stock Returns?

38 Pages Posted: 5 May 2011 Last revised: 15 Nov 2011

Date Written: May 1, 2011

Abstract

This study uses the method of Cremers and Petajisto (2009) to separate active institutional investors from passive ones and shows that only active institutional investors are able to alleviate the anomalous comovement of stock returns. Focusing on two events directly linked to the excess comovement anomaly: S&P 500 Index additions and stock splits, I find that if an event stock has more active institutional investors trading in the post-event period, the anomalous comovement effect disappears. In contrast, if an event stock experiences a massive exit of active institutional investors, this market anomaly persists. Furthermore, the exit of active institutional investors also results in a strong price synchronicity effect. Overall, my findings support the notion that active investing is socially valuable in mitigating the influences of uninformed investors and enhancing stock market’s information efficiency in the long run.

Keywords: S&P 500 Index, Stock Split, Institutional Investors, Comovement

JEL Classification: G14, G23

Suggested Citation

Ye, Pengfei, The Value of Active Investing: Can Active Institutional Investors Remove Excess Comovement of Stock Returns? (May 1, 2011). Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA), Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1831406

Pengfei Ye (Contact Author)

Virginia Tech ( email )

1016 Pamplin Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
United States

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