Securities and Finance

Trading Behavior

There are many instances in which an examination of how investors traded securities can shed insight on a dispute. Sometimes, the question is how certain trades may have affected prices, specifically when there are claims of market manipulation through certain trading behavior. Other times, there are questions about whether the trading itself was reasonable, such as when there are allegations of churning by brokers or in understanding the trades by a fund or investment manager accused of running a Ponzi or similar scheme. There are also situations in which one wants to draw information from non-fraudulent trading, such as estimating the number of shares that may be damaged in a shareholder class action or determining whether potential class members' shares can be traced back to a particular offering.

NERA economists bring their background and experience in understanding trading behavior to all of these analyses. Our work has included examinations of aggregate market data reported by trading markets like exchanges, as well as individual-level data from clients, brokerage houses, and entities like the Depository Trust Clearing Corporation. Our experience in working with these data can be helpful in understanding where to locate different forms of data and in understanding what needs to be requested from the producing party in order for later analyses to be useful.