Document Type

Discussion Paper

Publication Date

6-1-2018

CFDP Number

2134

CFDP Pages

73

Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Code(s)

C91, G11, G12

Abstract

To explore how speculative trading influences prices in financial markets we conduct a laboratory market experiment with speculating investors (who do not collect dividends and trade only for capital gains) as well as dividend-collecting investors. We find that in markets with only speculating investors (i) price deviations from fundamentals are larger; (ii) prices are more volatile; (iii) the “mispricing” is likely to be strategic and not irrational; (iv) mispricing increases with the number of transfers until maturity; and (v) speculative trading pushes prices upward (downward) when liquidity is high (low).

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Economics Commons

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