Political involvement has long been shown to be a pro…table investment for …rms that seek favorable regulatory conditions or support in times of economic distress. But how important are di¤erent types of political involvement for the timing and magnitude of political support? To answer this question, we take a comprehensive look at the lobbying expenditures and political connections of banks that were recipients of government support under the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). We …nd that politicallyengaged …rms were not only more likely to receive TARP support, but they also received a greater amount of TARP support and received the support earlier than …rms that were not politically involved.

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Research documents a U-shaped intraday pattern of returns. We examine which trade sizes drive the U-shaped pattern and find that intraday price changes from larger trades exhibit a U-shaped pattern whereas price changes from smaller trades show a reverse U-shaped pattern. We argue that price changes from smaller trades are higher during the middle of the day because informed investors break up their trades to disguise their information when intraday volume is low. Price changes from larger trades are likely higher at the beginning and end of the day because high volume allows informed investors to increase their trade size without revealing their information to the market. (c) 2009 The Southern Finance Association and the Southwestern Finance Association.

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REIT, Short sale, Return predictability, Price efficiency,

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