Melbourne Accounting Research Seminar - Professor Vernon Richardson

Melbourne Accounting Research Seminars
Melbourne Accounting Research Seminars

Fishbowl Level 8, The Spot
198 Berkeley St, Carlton

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Mario Schabus

mario.schabus@unimelb.edu.au

T: +61 3 8344 0218

  • Melbourne Accounting Research Seminar

Professor Vernon Richardson from the University of Arkansas will present a MARS seminar.

Topic: Bulls and Bears: Disagreement and Trading Volume around News Announcements

Abstract: We examine the association between disagreement and trading volume around news events using a novel measure of disagreement that overcomes two challenges Bamber et al. (2011) identify as facing earlier measures. Specifically, we measure disagreement based on heterogenous opinions about firm value of StockTwits users. We find strong results that both pre-existing disagreement and the change in disagreement following the earnings announcement are both associated with trading volume. We next provide novel evidence on the differential effects of attention and disagreement by examining the impact of more influential users in the StockTwits network. We find that disagreement between influential investors is associated with incrementally higher trading volume. Our measure of disagreement generalizes to other news events, consistent with the measure capturing disagreement about firm value, not just the short-term earnings prospects of the firm. Our results provide evidence consistent with the importance of both pre-existing heterogeneity between users of financial statement information and preliminary evidence that disagreement between individuals about financial information can be affected by online social networks.

*Note that this seminar is scheduled for Thursday, as Friday 27 September is the AFL Grand Final Holiday