Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures

This article examines the determinants of trading decisions and the performance of trader types, in the context of the E-Mini S&P 500 futures and S&P 500 futures markets. Speculators and small traders tend to follow positive feedback strategies while hedgers dynamically adjust positions in r...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Smales, Lee
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29362
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author Smales, Lee
author_facet Smales, Lee
author_sort Smales, Lee
building Curtin Institutional Repository
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description This article examines the determinants of trading decisions and the performance of trader types, in the context of the E-Mini S&P 500 futures and S&P 500 futures markets. Speculators and small traders tend to follow positive feedback strategies while hedgers dynamically adjust positions in response to market returns. Such strategies apparently reverse during the 2008-09 financial crisis. Investor sentiment and market volatility play an important role in determining the net trading position of traders across the sample period. While all trader types are better at foreseeing market upturns, an out-of-sample test suggests that speculators and small traders have some predictive ability for short-term market returns.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-293622018-11-30T04:11:14Z Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures Smales, Lee This article examines the determinants of trading decisions and the performance of trader types, in the context of the E-Mini S&P 500 futures and S&P 500 futures markets. Speculators and small traders tend to follow positive feedback strategies while hedgers dynamically adjust positions in response to market returns. Such strategies apparently reverse during the 2008-09 financial crisis. Investor sentiment and market volatility play an important role in determining the net trading position of traders across the sample period. While all trader types are better at foreseeing market upturns, an out-of-sample test suggests that speculators and small traders have some predictive ability for short-term market returns. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29362 10.1016/j.rfe.2015.11.001 fulltext
spellingShingle Smales, Lee
Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures
title Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures
title_full Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures
title_fullStr Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures
title_full_unstemmed Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures
title_short Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures
title_sort trading behavior in s&p 500 index futures
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29362