In this paper, a model of market reaction to stock splits is presented and tested. We argue that the announcement of a split sets off the following chain of events. The market recognizes that, subsequent to the (reverse) split ex‐day, the daily number of transactions along with the raw volume of shares traded will increase (decrease). This increase in volume results in an increase in the noisiness of the security's return process. The increase in noise raises the tax‐option value of the stock, and it is this value that generates the announcement effect of stock splits. Empirical evidence using security returns, daily trading volume, and shareholder data strongly supports this theory. The evidence, in conjunction with this theory, also agrees with extant literature that splits result in decreased liquidity, but there is no evidence that this reduction in liquidity is priced.

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This paper empirically examines the impact of option trading on the relation between daily stock return volatility and stock trading volume. For a sample of firms for which options were newly listed on the CBOE from 1982 to 1985, the empirical evidence indicates that there is a structural shift in the relation after option trading is introduced. Also, the findings show that daily stock return volatility is significantly and positively correlated with contemporaneous option volume, but not one‐day lagged option volume. These results suggest that contemporaneous option volume may be an important variable in modelling daily stock return volatility and heteroskedasticity.