The impact of day-trading on volatility and liquidity

Abstract

We examine day-trading activities for 540 stocks traded on the Korea Stock Exchange using transactions data for the period from 1999 to 2000. Our cross-sectional analysis reveals that day-traders prefer lower-priced, more liquid, and more volatile stocks. By estimating various bivariate VAR models using minute-by-minute data, we find that greater daytrading activity leads to greater return volatility and that the impact of a day-trading shock dissipates gradually within an hour. Past return volatility also positively affects future day-trading activity. We also find that past day-trading activity negatively affects bid-ask spreads, and past bid-ask spreads negatively affect future day-trading activity. Finally, we find that day-traders use short-term contrarian strategies and their order imbalance affects future returns positively. This result is consistent with a cyclical behavior of day-traders who concentrate their buy or sell trades at the bottom or peak of the shortterm price cycles, respectively.