Search Results
Working Paper
Who is Minding the Store? Order Routing and Competition in Retail Trade Execution
Using 150,000 actual trades, we study the U.S. equity retail broker-wholesaler market, focusing on brokers’ order routing and competition among wholesalers. We document substantial and persistent dispersion in execution costs across wholesalers within brokers. Despite this, many brokers hardly change their routing and even consistently send more orders to the more expensive wholesalers, although there is considerable variation among brokers. We also document a case where, after a new wholesaler enters, existing wholesalers significantly reduce their execution costs. Overall, our findings ...
Working Paper
Funds of Funds' Portfolio Rebalancing during the COVID-19 Crisis
During the COVID-19 crisis, large outflows from bond mutual funds disrupted debt markets. We show that ""funds of funds""-mutual funds that invest in other mutual funds-accounted for a third of those outflows in March 2020. They rebalanced their portfolios mechanically in response to equity market losses, selling bond funds and purchasing equity funds. While they sold 14 percent of their total bond fund holdings, they concentrated sales in government bond funds, liquidating 34 percent of their holdings, over 100 percent of outflows from these funds. Our findings highlight how mechanical ...