Foreign versus local investors: Who knows more? Who makes more?

This paper examines the nature of information asymmetry between foreign and local investors on the Helsinki stock exchange (HEX) for the period 1999-2004. We take into account the differences in informational characteristics by partitioning stocks into single-listed, cross-listed and internationally well-known stock categories, after which we compare foreign and local investors' performance and trading advantages. Local investors have trading advantages in the short term in all stock categories. However, such local advantages diminish for Nokia, the only internationally well-known stock on HEX.

[1]  Mark Grinblatt,et al.  What Makes Investors Trade? , 2000 .

[2]  Brian F. Smith,et al.  The costs and determinants of order aggressiveness , 2000 .

[3]  G. Karolyi,et al.  The Economic Consequences of Increased Disclosure: Evidence from International Cross-Listings , 2005 .

[4]  G. Karolyi Did the Asian Financial Crisis Scare Foreign Investors Out of Japan? , 1999 .

[5]  H. Henry Cao,et al.  International Portfolio Investment Flows , 1997 .

[6]  Ian A. Cooper,et al.  Home Bias in Equity Portfolios, Inflation Hedging, and International Capital Market Equilibrium , 1994 .

[7]  Peter K. Pham,et al.  Public Information Arrival and Volatility of Intraday Stock Returns , 2002 .

[8]  Mark Grinblatt,et al.  How Distance, Language, and Culture Influence Stockholdings and Trades , 2001 .

[9]  Magnus Dahlquist,et al.  Direct foreign ownership, institutional investors, and firm characteristics , 2001 .

[10]  P. Ylä-Anttila,et al.  Foreign Ownership in Finland - Boosting Firm Performance and Changing Corporate Governance , 2004 .

[11]  René M. Stulz,et al.  Why is There a Home Bias? An Analysis of Foreign Portfolio Equity Ownership in Japan , 1995 .

[12]  Mark Grinblatt,et al.  The investment behavior and performance of various investor types: a study of Finland's unique data set , 2000 .

[13]  Gur Huberman,et al.  Familiarity Breeds Investment , 1999 .

[14]  Hyuk Choe,et al.  Do Domestic Investors Have an Edge? The Trading Experience of Foreign Investors in Korea , 2004 .

[15]  Thomas Gehrig An Information Based Explanation of the Domestic Bias in International Equity Investment , 1993 .

[16]  René M. Stulz,et al.  Why are Foreign Firms Listed in the U.S. Worth More , 2001 .

[17]  M. Brennan,et al.  The Dynamics of International Equity Market Expectations , 2003 .

[18]  Hidetaka Kawakita,et al.  Investment patterns and performance of investor groups in Japan , 2003 .

[19]  Z. Ivkovich,et al.  Local Does as Local is: Information Content of the Geography of Individual Investors&Apos; Common Stock Investments , 2003 .

[20]  H. Levy,et al.  International Diversification of Investment Portfolios , 1970 .

[21]  Tomáš Dvořák,et al.  Do Domestic Investors Have an Information Advantage? Evidence from Indonesia , 2005 .

[22]  John R. Nofsinger,et al.  International Cross-Listing and Visibility , 1998 .

[23]  George Sofianos,et al.  The Trades of Market Makers: An Empirical Analysis of NYSE Specialists , 1993 .

[24]  A note on foreigners' trading and price effects across firms , 2004 .

[25]  Determinants of International Portfolio Investment Flows to a Small Market: Empirical Evidence , 2000 .

[26]  Sheridan Titman,et al.  Performance Measurement without Benchmarks: An Examination of Mutual Fund Returns , 1993 .

[27]  Harald Hau,et al.  Location Matters: An Examination of Trading Profits , 2001 .

[28]  Karl V. Lins,et al.  Adrs, Analysts, and Accuracy: Does Cross Listing in the U.S. Improve a Firm's Information Environment and Increase Market Value? , 2002 .

[29]  Avanidhar Subrahmanyam,et al.  Brand Perceptions and the Market for Common Stock , 2001 .

[30]  P. Westerholm Do Uninformed Crossed and Internalized Trades Tap into Unexpressed Liquidity? The Case of Nokia , 2008 .

[31]  Charles M. C. Lee,et al.  Inferring Trade Direction from Intraday Data , 1991 .

[32]  Kenneth A. Froot,et al.  The Information Content of International Portfolio Flows , 2001 .