This paper analyzes the price discovery process of a set of Spanish stocks cross-listed at the NYSE. Our methodology distinguishes between two sources of information asymmetries. Market-specific information that is revealed through the trading process and public disclosures simultaneously revealed to both markets but subject to informed judgments. We compute the information share of the Spanish and U.S. trading activity during the daily 2-hour overlapping interval. Empirical results show that the NYSE contribution to the price discovery process is not negligible. But the NYSE information is basically trade-unrelated.

"The 'magnet' or 'gravitational' effect hypothesis asserts that, when trading halts are rule-based, investors concerned with a likely impediment to trade advance trades in time. This behaviour actually pushes prices further towards the limit. Empirical studies about the magnet effect are scarce, most likely because of the unavailability of data on rule-based halts. In this paper, we use a large database from the Spanish Stock Exchange (SSE), which combines intraday stock specific price limits and short-lived rule-based call auctions to stabilise prices, to test this hypothesis. The SSE is particularly well suited to test the magnet effect hypothesis since trading halts are price-triggered and, therefore, predictable to some extent. Still, the SSE microstructure presents two particularities: (i) a limit-hit triggers an automatic switch to an alternative trading mechanism, a call auction, rather than a pure halt; (ii) the trading halt only lasts 5 minutes. We find that, even when prices are within a very short distance to the price limits, the probability of observing a limit-hit is unexpectedly low. Additionally, prices either initiate reversion (non limit-hit days) or slow down gradually (limit-hit days) as they come near the intraday limits. Finally, the most aggressive traders progressively become more patient as prices approach the limits. Therefore, both the price patterns and the trading behaviour reported near the limits do not agree with the price limits acting as magnetic fields. Consequently, we conclude that the switching mechanism implemented in the SSE does not induce traders to advance their trading programs in time." Copyright 2007 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

We evaluate a stock-specific circuit breaker implemented in several European stock exchanges, which consists of a short-lived call auction triggered by intraday stock-specific price limits. It differs from U.S. trading halts in that it is short-lived and nondiscretionary, and a trading mechanism (continuous or discrete) is always going. It differs from daily price limits in that trade prices are not restricted once the limit is hit. Intraday price ranges are smaller and adjusted to the recent volatility, so that limit hits are more frequent. We contribute to the debate about circuit breakers by enlarging the span of these mechanisms studied. Copyright (c) 2010 The Southern Finance Association and the Southwestern Finance Association.

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