The Scientific World Journal
Volume 2015, Article ID 307808, 14 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/307808
A Good Beginning Makes a Good Market: The Effect of Different Market Opening Structures on Market Quality
1Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Karl-Franzens University Graz, Universitatsstraße 15/E3, 8010 Graz, Austria
2Institute of Banking and Finance, Karl-Franzens University Graz, Universitatsstraße 15/F2, 8010 Graz, Austria
3Department of Banking and Insurance, University of Applied Sciences Joanneum, Eggenberger Allee 11, 8020 Graz, Austria
4Department of Banking and Finance, University of Innsbruck, Universitatsstraße 15/4, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Received 13 June 2014; Accepted 8 October 2014
Academic Editor: Sarah Brown
Copyright © 2015 Gernot Hinterleitner et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
This paper deals with the market structure at the opening of the trading day and its influence on subsequent trading. We compare a single continuous double auction and two complement markets with different call auction designs as opening mechanisms in a unified experimental framework. The call auctions differ with respect to their levels of transparency. We find that a call auction not only improves market efficiency and liquidity at the beginning of the trading day when compared to the stand-alone continuous double auction, but also causes positive spillover effects on subsequent trading. Concerning the design of the opening call auction, we find no significant differences between the transparent and nontransparent specification with respect to opening prices and liquidity. In the course of subsequent continuous trading, however, market quality is slightly higher after a nontransparent call auction.