Hazem Daouk

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Hazem Daouk is a financial economist, known for his work on securities regulation, especially insider trading, earnings management and short selling. He is a professor at Cornell University where he holds the Peter J. & Stephanie J. Nolan chair. His articles have been cited over 4,000 times (Google Scholar). [1] Daouk is the general manager of United Insurance Company. [2]

In 1998, his research uncovered the rampant insider trading on the Mexican Stock Exchange. [pub 1] [3] [4] This led to many questions about the value and the enforceability of insider trading laws. The study won the Best Academic Paper Award offered by the International Investment Forum at the University of Chicago.

In later research, Daouk conducted a comprehensive survey of insider trading laws and prosecution in about a hundred countries that have a stock market. He then showed that countries that enforce insider trading laws reduce the cost of financing of companies by many percentage points. This is because outside investors no longer require to be compensated for the money they lose from trading with better-informed insiders. On the other hand, having the law without enforcing it, does not do anything. [pub 2] [5] [6] [7] [8] This research was nominated for the Smith Breeden Prize for Best Paper in the Journal of Finance for the year 2002.

A little before the Enron scandal, Daouk was investigating whether informational risk associated with accounting earnings quality impacts stock markets around the world (he analyzed financial statements from 34 countries for the period 1985-1998). He found that accounting manipulation in a country, increases significantly the cost of financing of companies and reduces liquidity. [pub 3] [9] [10] He also found that the country with the most accounting manipulation was Greece. A year later, the European Commission issued a formal warning after Greece was found to have falsified budget deficit data in run-up to joining the eurozone. [11] A few years later, the Greek debt crisis started.

Daouk is also known for his research that documents short selling laws and practice in about a hundred stock markets in the world. The magazine The Banker has written that "Most Western regulatory bodies tend to subscribe broadly to the findings" of Daouk, which concluded that when short selling is possible, stock prices are less volatile and there is greater liquidity. However, in an interview with the same magazine, he stated that he did not oppose the temporary restrictions on short selling that were enacted in different countries in reaction to the financial crisis. [pub 4] [12]

Publications (selection)

  1. “When an event is not an event: The curious case of an emerging market” (with U. Bhattacharya, B. Jorgenson, and C. Kehr), Journal of Financial Economics , 2000, 55, 69-101.
  2. “The world price of insider trading” (with U. Bhattacharya), Journal of Finance, 2002, 57, 75-108. Reprinted in Claessens S. and L. Laeven (ed), 2006, “A reader in international corporate finance”, World Bank, Herndon, VA, USA.
  3. “The world price of earnings opacity” (with U. Bhattacharya and M. Welker), Accounting Review , 2003, 78, 641-678.
  4. “Market-wide short-selling restrictions” (with A. Charoenrook), Cornell University working paper, 2005.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insider trading</span> Public company stock or securities trading using nonpublic information

Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information is illegal. This is because it is seen as unfair to other investors who do not have access to the information, as the investor with insider information could potentially make larger profits than a typical investor could make. The rules governing insider trading are complex and vary significantly from country to country. The extent of enforcement also varies from one country to another. The definition of insider in one jurisdiction can be broad, and may cover not only insiders themselves but also any persons related to them, such as brokers, associates, and even family members. A person who becomes aware of non-public information and trades on that basis may be guilty of a crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial market</span> Generic term for all markets in which trading takes place with capital

A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial markets as commodities.

In business, economics or investment, market liquidity is a market's feature whereby an individual or firm can quickly purchase or sell an asset without causing a drastic change in the asset's price. Liquidity involves the trade-off between the price at which an asset can be sold, and how quickly it can be sold. In a liquid market, the trade-off is mild: one can sell quickly without having to accept a significantly lower price. In a relatively illiquid market, an asset must be discounted in order to sell quickly. Money, or cash, is the most liquid asset because it can be exchanged for goods and services instantly at face value.

Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Short (finance)</span> Practice of selling securities or other financial instruments that are not currently owned

In finance, being short in an asset means investing in such a way that the investor will profit if the value of the asset falls. This is the opposite of a more conventional "long" position, where the investor will profit if the value of the asset rises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Monday (1987)</span> Global stock market crash

Black Monday is the name commonly given to the global, sudden, severe, and largely unexpected stock market crash on Monday, October 19, 1987. In Australia and New Zealand, the day is also referred to as Black Tuesday because of the time zone difference from other English-speaking countries. All of the twenty-three major world markets experienced a sharp decline in October 1987. When measured in United States dollars, eight markets declined by 20 to 29%, three by 30 to 39%, and three by more than 40%. The least affected was Austria while the most affected was Hong Kong with a drop of 45.8%. Out of twenty-three major industrial countries, nineteen had a decline greater than 20%. Worldwide losses were estimated at US$1.71 trillion. The severity of the crash sparked fears of extended economic instability or even a reprise of the Great Depression.

In financial markets, market impact is the effect that a market participant has when it buys or sells an asset. It is the extent to which the buying or selling moves the price against the buyer or seller, i.e., upward when buying and downward when selling. It is closely related to market liquidity; in many cases "liquidity" and "market impact" are synonymous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Securities Exchange Act of 1934</span> 1934 U.S. legislation establishing rules and regulatory bodies for financial markets

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is a law governing the secondary trading of securities in the United States of America. A landmark of wide-ranging legislation, the Act of '34 and related statutes form the basis of regulation of the financial markets and their participants in the United States. The 1934 Act also established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency primarily responsible for enforcement of United States federal securities law.

The Direct Registration System (DRS) or direct holding system is a traditional system of securities clearance, settlement and ownership in which owners of securities have a direct relationship with the issuer. As implemented in the past, investors would either be recorded on the issuer's register or they would be in physical possession of bearer securities certificates.

Utpal Bhattacharya is a finance professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is known for his research on market integrity, especially on insider trading.

Front running, also known as tailgating, is the prohibited practice of entering into an equity (stock) trade, option, futures contract, derivative, or security-based swap to capitalize on advance, nonpublic knowledge of a large ("block") pending transaction that will influence the price of the underlying security. In essence, it means the practice of engaging in a Personal Securities Transaction in advance of a transaction in the same security for a client's account. Front running is considered a form of market manipulation in many markets. Cases typically involve individual brokers or brokerage firms trading stock in and out of undisclosed, unmonitored accounts of relatives or confederates. Institutional and individual investors may also commit a front running violation when they are privy to inside information. A front running firm either buys for its own account before filling customer buy orders that drive up the price, or sells for its own account before filling customer sell orders that drive down the price. Front running is prohibited since the front-runner profits from nonpublic information, at the expense of its own customers, the block trade, or the public market.

Algorithmic trading is a method of executing orders using automated pre-programmed trading instructions accounting for variables such as time, price, and volume. This type of trading attempts to leverage the speed and computational resources of computers relative to human traders. In the twenty-first century, algorithmic trading has been gaining traction with both retail and institutional traders. It is widely used by investment banks, pension funds, mutual funds, and hedge funds that may need to spread out the execution of a larger order or perform trades too fast for human traders to react to. A study in 2019 showed that around 92% of trading in the Forex market was performed by trading algorithms rather than humans.

Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in losses, in violation of securities laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naked short selling</span> Short-selling practice

Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset of any kind without first borrowing the asset from someone else or ensuring that it can be borrowed. When the seller does not obtain the asset and deliver it to the buyer within the required time frame, the result is known as a "failure to deliver" (FTD). The transaction generally remains open until the asset is acquired and delivered by the seller, or the seller's broker settles the trade on their behalf.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to finance:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Financial Supervisory Authority</span> German financial regulator

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority better known by its abbreviation BaFin is the financial regulatory authority for Germany. It is an independent federal institution with headquarters in Bonn and Frankfurt and falls under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Finance. BaFin supervises about 2,700 banks, 800 financial services institutions, and over 700 insurance undertakings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Market manipulation</span> Deliberate attempt to interfere with and subvert the free market

In economics and finance, market manipulation is a type of market abuse where there is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the free and fair operation of the market; the most blatant of cases involve creating false or misleading appearances with respect to the price of, or market for, a product, security or commodity.

High-frequency trading (HFT) is a type of algorithmic financial trading characterized by high speeds, high turnover rates, and high order-to-trade ratios that leverages high-frequency financial data and electronic trading tools. While there is no single definition of HFT, among its key attributes are highly sophisticated algorithms, co-location, and very short-term investment horizons. HFT can be viewed as a primary form of algorithmic trading in finance. Specifically, it is the use of sophisticated technological tools and computer algorithms to rapidly trade securities. HFT uses proprietary trading strategies carried out by computers to move in and out of positions in seconds or fractions of a second.

A flash crash is a very rapid, deep, and volatile fall in security prices occurring within a very short time period followed by a quick recovery. Flash crashes are frequently blamed by media on trades executed by black-box trading, combined with high-frequency trading, whose speed and interconnectedness can result in the loss and recovery of billions of dollars in a matter of minutes and seconds, but in reality occur because almost all participants have pulled their liquidity and temporarily paused their trading in the face of a sudden increase in risk.

Craig Woodworth Holden is the Finance Department Chair and Gregg T. and Judith A. Summerville Chair of Finance at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His research focuses on market microstructure. He is secretary-treasurer of the Society for Financial Studies. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Markets. His M.B.A. and Ph.D. are from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. He received the Fama-DFA Prize for the second best paper in capital markets published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2009, the Spangler-IQAM Award for the best investments paper published in the Review of Finance in 2017-2018, and the Philip Brown Prize for the best paper published in 2017 using SIRCA data. His research has been cited more than 4,300 times. He has written two books on financial modeling in Excel: Excel Modeling in Investments and Excel Modeling in Corporate Finance. He has chaired 22 dissertations, been a member or chair of 62 dissertations, and serves on the program committees of the Western Finance Association and European Finance Association.

References

  1. Articles on Google Scholar. Retrieved 1 February 2017. Note: Authors of financial economics articles are listed in alphabetical order.
  2. "United Insurance Company, Hazem Daouk, new general manager" (March 2011). Atlas Magazine.
  3. Barnhart, Bill (March 12, 1998). “Inside Mexico”. Chicago Tribune , p. 6.
  4. Henderson, Barry (February 8, 1999). “Corruption? Caramba! Academics find widespread insider trading in Mexico”. Barron's , p. 22-23.
  5. “The cost of inequity” (January 22, 2000). The Economist .
  6. Beard, Alison (April 12, 2001) “Few countries enforcing insider trading laws”. Financial Times .
  7. Hoffman, Jascha (March 3, 2004) “Insider trading: A good thing?” Boston Globe .
  8. Ramsay, Ian (August 8, 2005) “ASIC's uphill fight to keep ‘em honest”. The Age .
  9. Popper, Margaret (July 22, 2002) "Economic trends: America the transparent". Bloomberg Businessweek .
  10. Weisser, Cybele Archived 2012-02-13 at the Wayback Machine (September 2002) "Word on the street: Homebound". Money , p. 37-38.
  11. “Greece profile - Timeline” (December 15, 2016). BBC .
  12. Beck, John (October 3, 2011) “Market controls: Does intervention work? The Banker , cover story.