Strategic Trading and Trade Reporting by Corporate Insiders

André Betzer, Jasmin Gider, Daniel Metzger, Erik Theissen
2009 Social Science Research Network  
Strategic trading and trade reporting by corporate insiders CFR Working Paper,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Provided in Cooperation with: Centre for Financial Research (CFR), University of Cologne Suggested Citation: Betzer, André; Gider, Jasmin; Metzger, Daniel; Theissen, Erik (2010) : Strategic trading and trade reporting by corporate insiders, CFR Working Paper, No. 09-15 [rev.] This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/70116 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf
more » ... tor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract Regulations in the pre-Sarbanes-Oxley era allowed corporate insiders considerable flexibility in strategically timing their trades and SEC filings, for example, by executing several trades and reporting them jointly after the last trade. We document that even these lax reporting requirements were frequently violated and that the strategic timing of trades and reports was common. Event study abnormal returns are larger after reports of strategic insider trades than after reports of otherwise similar nonstrategic trades. Our results also imply that delayed reporting is detrimental to market efficiency and lend strong support to the more stringent trade reporting requirements established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.1342461 fatcat:e4suac7el5b5vfdgengu3w3one