•Using data from Robinhood user activity, we document that these retail investors are actively engaged in both momentum and contrarian trading strategies.•We find that retail investors reduced ...momentum trading and increased contrarian trading activity during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis.•We also find that the impact of Robinhood investors on several measures of market quality varied depending on market conditions.•Better market quality coincided during less stressful periods and Robinhood user activity was associated with worse market quality during the early weeks of the pandemic in the U.S.
Using data on stocks held by individual investors at retail brokerage firm Robinhood, we document that these investors are actively engaged in both momentum and contrarian trading strategies. In response to the increased volatility and uncertainty in financial markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, we find that retail investors reduce momentum trading and increase contrarian trading activity during the initial phase of this crisis. We also find that the impact of Robinhood investors on several measures of market quality varied depending on market conditions, coinciding with better market quality during less-stressful periods and worse market quality during the early weeks of the pandemic in the U.S.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program (GLFMSP) has traced the fate and transport of anthropogenic chemicals in the Great Lakes region for ...decades. Isolating and identifying halogenated species in fish is a major challenge due to the complexity of the biological matrix. A nontargeted screening methodology was developed and applied to lake trout using a 2-dimensional gas chromatograph coupled to a high resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer (GC×GC-HR-ToF MS). Halogenated chemicals were identified using a combination of authentic standards and library spectral matching, with molecular formula estimations provided by exact mass spectral interpretation. In addition to the halogenated chemicals currently being targeted by the GLFMSP, more than 60 nontargeted halogenated species were identified. Most appear to be metabolites or breakdown products of larger halogenated organics. The most abundant compound class was halomethoxyphenols accounting for more than 60% of the total concentration of halogenated compounds in top predator fish from all five Great Lakes illustrating the need and utility of nontargeted halogenated screening of aquatic systems using this platform.
The study examines the largely unexplored effect of changes in the competitive landscape for large, global financial institutions on their ability to take risks, as well as deploy capital and labour ...in an efficient manner based on a novel measure of inefficiency. The analysis shows during 2001-2013 that inefficiency peaked during the 2008 crisis period and has fallen back to levels close to pre-crisis periods. The model also performs well in out-of-sample forecasts of the financial firms' future market values. These results suggest that large financial firms have been adjusting to the 'new normal' of the post-crisis period and thus are able to use capital and labour more efficiently within the constraints of current market conditions. In addition, a non-linear pattern between inefficiency and a firm's asset size suggests that there might be an optimal scale for such firms in the $450-650 billion range.
Lake trout and walleye composites were collected between 2004 and 2009 as part of the Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program (GLFMSP) and analyzed for polybrominated diphenyl ethers ...(PBDEs). Yearly mean total PBDE concentrations (sum of congeners BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-153, BDE-154) ranged from 44–192, 28–113, 50–107, 37–111, and 11–22 ng/g wet wt. for Lakes Michigan, Huron, Ontario, and Superior lake trout, and Lake Erie walleye, respectively. A 1980–2009 temporal record of PBDE concentrations in the Great Lakes’ top predator fish (lake trout and walleye) was assembled by integrating previous GLFMSP data (1980–2003) with current results (2004–2009). Temporal profiles show obvious breakpoints between periods of PBDE accumulation and decline in trout for Lakes Huron, Michigan and Ontario with a significant (p < 0.0001 and r = 0.55, 0.72, and 0.51, respectively) decrease in concentration after 2000–2001. A similar transition was observed in Lake Superior for the nearshore site accompanied by a less significant decreasing trend (p = 0.016, r = 0.33), suggesting concentrations are declining very slowly or have leveled off. In contrast, Lake Erie walleye concentrations began leveling off in the late 1990s and no statistically significant trend (increasing or decreasing) has been observed in recent years. A decrease in the BDE-47/BDE-153 ratio was also recently observed, suggesting a transition to more highly brominated PBDEs is occurring in Great Lakes trout. This study provides region-wide evidence that PBDE concentrations are generally declining in Great Lakes trout, although there are clear exceptions to this trend. Results from this study reflect the positive impact of the 2004 PentaBDE ban on macro-scale aquatic freshwater ecosystems.
•Systemic risk is positively related to sovereign debt yields in a crisis-driven, episodic manner.•A simultaneous relation suggests that sovereign debt models should include systemic risk ...metrics.•Shocks to domestic linkages are stronger and longer lasting than international risk spillovers.•The channel is indirect between domestic sovereign debt yields and another nation's sovereign debt.•The model is useful for capital adequacy, liquidity risk, “too-big-to-fail,” and monetary policy.
Using an integrated model to control for simultaneity, as well as new risk measurement techniques such as Adapted Exposure CoVaR and Marginal Expected Shortfall (MES), we show that the aggregate systemic risk exposure of financial institutions is positively related to sovereign debt yields in European countries in an episodic manner, varying positively with the intensity of the financial crisis facing a particular nation. We find evidence of a simultaneous relation between systemic risk exposure and sovereign debt yields. This suggests that models of sovereign debt yields should also include the systemic risk of a country's financial system in order to avoid potentially important mis-specification errors. We find evidence that systemic risk of a country's financial institutions and the risk of sovereign governments are inter-related and shocks to these domestic linkages are stronger and longer lasting than international risk spillovers. Thus, the channel in which domestic sovereign debt yields can be affected by another nation's sovereign debt is mostly an indirect one in that shocks to a foreign country's government finances are transmitted to that country's financial system which, in turn, can spill over to the domestic financial system and, ultimately, have a destabilizing effect on the domestic sovereign debt market.
Children with acute neurologic illness are at high risk of mortality and long-term neurologic disability. Severe traumatic brain injury, cardiac arrest, stroke, and central nervous system infection ...are often complicated by cerebral hypoxia, hypoperfusion, and edema, leading to secondary neurologic injury and worse outcome. Owing to the paucity of targeted neuroprotective therapies for these conditions, management emphasizes close physiologic monitoring and supportive care. In this review, we will discuss advanced neurologic monitoring strategies in pediatric acute neurologic illness, emphasizing the physiologic concepts underlying each tool. We will also highlight recent innovations including novel monitoring modalities, and the application of neurologic monitoring in critically ill patients at risk of developing neurologic sequelae.
This open access book addresses four standard business school subjects: microeconomics, macroeconomics, finance and information systems as they relate to trading, liquidity, and market structure. It ...provides a detailed examination of the impact of trading costs and other impediments of trading that the authors call “frictions”. It also presents an interactive simulation model of equity market trading, TraderEx, that enables students to implement trading decisions in different market scenarios and structures. Addressing these topics shines a bright light on how a real-world financial market operates, and the simulation provides students with an experiential learning opportunity that is informative and fun. Each of the chapters is designed so that it can be used as a stand-alone module in an existing economics, finance, or information science course. Instructor resources such as discussion questions, Powerpoint slides and TraderEx exercises are available online.
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were widely used as fire retardants and have been detected throughout the Great Lakes (GL) ecosystem. The concentration trends (after fish age normalization) of ...PBDEs in top predator fish (lake trout and walleye) of the GLs were determined from 1979 to 2016, which includes most of the period when PBDEs were manufactured and used in this region. The fish samples were collected by two national (U.S. and Canada) long-term monitoring and surveillance programs. Trends in total concentrations (age-normalized) of the five major PBDE congeners (BDE-47, 99, 100, 153, and 154) found in fish across all five lakes have varied over time. Significant increases were observed from 1990 to 2000 (16.3% per year). Rapidly decreasing concentrations (−19.5% per year) were found from 2000 to 2007. Since 2007, the decreasing trend has become smaller (less than −5.5% per year) and relatively unchanged from 2011 to 2015. BDE-47, the congener with the highest concentrations in lake trout, has decreased continuously (ranging from −6.7% to −16.2% per year) in all lakes except Lake Erie. This decrease can be associated with the voluntary and regulatory phase out of production and/or usage of PBDEs since 2000. However, it has been offset by recent (since 2007) increasing trends of the other four higher brominated BDE congeners, especially BDE-100 and 154. Production and usage of commercial penta- and octa- BDE mixtures containing primarily the five major PBDE congeners was discontinued in 2004 in the U.S.A. and 2008 in Canada. These results indicate increasing fish uptake and bioaccumulation of higher brominated BDE congeners may be related to the transformation of BDE-209 to lower brominated BDE compounds in the GL environment or food web. Considering the abundance of BDE-209 in existing products and sediment in GL region, the duration of the unchanging total PBDE concentration trend in GL fish could be longer than expected.
Our research reports polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (CP-PCBs) concentrations and age-corrected trends for ...lake trout and walleye in the Great Lakes over the 2004–2014 period. We determined that age–contaminant corrections are required to accurately report contaminant trends due to significant lake trout age structure changes. The age-trend model (ATM) described here uses a lake-specific age–contaminant regression to mitigate the effect of a fluctuating lake trout age structure to directly improve the log–linear regression model. ATM results indicate that half-life (t 1/2) and percent decreases for PCDD/Fs, CP-PCBs, and toxic equivalence (TEQ) (average −56 to 70%) were fairly uniform and consistent across the Great Lakes over the 2004–2014 period. The vast majority of TEQ associated with all Great Lakes lake trout and walleye samples is due to the nonortho CP-PCBs (average = 79%) as compared with PCDD/Fs (average = 21%). On average, CP-PCB_126 individually accounted for over 95% of the total CP-PCB TEQ. A retrospective analysis (1977–2014) of 2378-TCDF and 2378-TCDD raw concentrations in Lake Ontario lake trout revealed decreases of 94% and 96%, respectively. Tissue residue guidelines for wildlife protection based on lake trout and walleye total TEQ were uniformly exceeded in all the Great Lakes.
•Japanese banks provide credit guarantees to the bonds issued by small firms with weaker financial profiles.•After the U.S. financial crisis in 2008, the impact of bank guarantees on yield spreads ...becomes much less significant as bond issuers have begun to rely more on credit ratings.•We find evidence of the demise of main bank relationships in Japan and transformation to market-based corporate governance.
We investigate a large set of yen-denominated Japanese corporate bonds composed of bank-guaranteed vs. unguaranteed bonds and find evidence of the demise of main bank relationships and transformation to market-based corporate governance since the 2008 financial crisis. We find that issuers with unrated and bank-guaranteed bonds have more information asymmetry and possess poorer firm quality. Japanese banks provide credit guarantees to the bonds issued by small or opaque firms with weaker financial profiles, thus reducing the risk of issuer default, as well as saving on bond rating fees and the costs of a public offering. The bank guarantee for private and unrated bonds serves as valuable (but costly) protection for investors who invest in these riskier issuers’ bonds. Most importantly, after the U.S. financial crisis, the impact of bank guarantees on yield spreads becomes much less significant as bond issuers have begun to rely more on credit ratings as a potentially cheaper and more effective monitoring/corporate governance mechanism.
