Institutional Trading, Investor Sentiment and Lottery-Like Stock Preferences

Abstract

This paper explores the time-varying institutional investor preference for lottery-like stocks. On average, institutional investor holdings reflect an aversion to lottery-like stocks. However, I find that an institutions’ aversion to lottery-like stocks is reduced when investor sentiment is low. Moreover, I find that during low-sentiment periods institutional investors have abnormally high trading profits in more positively skewed stocks. These results suggest that institutions reduce their aversion towards lottery-like stocks during low-sentiment periods to profitably trade in lottery-like stocks.

Keywords: institutional trading, investor sentiment, lotteries, skewness

JEL Classification: G11, G14, G23, G41