Short and Distort

Authors

Joshua Mitts, Columbia Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1086/711119

Abstract

Pseudonymous attacks on public companies are followed by stock price declines and sharp reversals. These patterns are likely driven by manipulative stock options trading by pseudonymous authors. Among 1,720 pseudonymous attacks on mid- and large-cap firms from 2010 to 2017, I identify over $20.1 billion in mispricing. Reputation theory suggests these reversals persist because pseudonymity allows manipulators to switch identities without accountability.

Disciplines

Law | Securities Law

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Comments

© 2020 The University of Chicago.

Recommended Citation

Joshua Mitts, Short and Distort, 49 J. Legal Stud. 287 (2020).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2782