Examining the relationship between trading volume, market return volatility and U.S. aggregate mutual fund flow

Abstract

This thesis consists of three studies which cover topics in the trading volume-market return volatility linkage, stock market return-aggregate mutual fund flow relationship as well as market return volatility-aggregate mutual fund flow interaction. Chapter 2 investigates the issue of volume-volatility linkage in the US market for the period 1990-2012 (S&P 500) and 1992-2012 (Dow Jones). We construct four sub-samples depending on three different structural points (the Asian Financial Crisis, the Dot-Com Bubble and the 2007 Financial Crisis). By employing univariate and bivariate GARCH processes, we find positive (negative) bidirectional linkages between these two aforementioned variables in various cases of the estimation, while a mixed one is observed in the remainder of these cases. Chapter 3 examines the issue of temporal ordering of the range-based stock market return (S&P 500 index) and aggregate mutual fund flow in the U.S. market for the period 1998-2012. We construct nine sub-samples represented by three fundamental cases of the whole data set. In addition, we take into consideration three essential indicators when splitting the whole data set, which are the 2000 Dot-Com Bubble, the 2007 Financial Crisis as well as the 2009 European Sovereign Debt Crisis. We examine the dynamics of the return-flow interaction by employing bivariate VAR model with various specifications of GARCH approach. Our principal findings display a bidirectional mixed feedback between stock market return and aggregate mutual fund flow for the majority of the sub-samples obtained. Nevertheless, we provide limited evidence of a positive bi-directional causality between return and flow. Chapter 4 investigates the dynamic relation between S&P 500 return volatility and U.S. aggregate mutual fund flow for the period spanning between 1998 and 2012. We assess the dynamics of the volatility-flow linkage by employing a bivariate VAR model with the GARCH approach which allows for long memory in the mean and the variance equations. In addition to the sub-samples obtained in chapter 3, we generate two measurements of volatility. Our baseline results indicate a variety of bidirectional mixed causalities between market return volatility and aggregate mutual fund flow in several sub-samples. In addition, we observe a negative/positive bi-directional relationship between volatility and flow in the rest of the sub-periods. Summarizing, a range of our findings are in line with the empirical underpinnings that most likely predict a significant linkage between the aforementioned variables. Finally, most of the bidirectional effects are found to be quite robust to the dynamics of the various GARCH processes employed in this thesis.