Retail investors exonerated: The case of the January effect

Julia Henker*, Debapriya Jojo Paul

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We dispel the belief that the January effect is due to retail investor trading. Previous studies suggest that retail investors, affected by behavioural biases and disproportionally invested in small capitalization stocks, are the source of the January effect. Furthermore, the literature regards retail investor trading and the tax-loss selling hypothesis as essentially the same explanation. We separate tax implications and market capitalization to show that retail traders are not the cause of the January effect. Our study is an important direct test of whether retail trading causes market anomalies. 

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1083-1099
Number of pages17
JournalAccounting and Finance
Volume52
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2012

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Retail investors exonerated: The case of the January effect'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this