Journal of Finance (2024)
webCredibility Rating
High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.
Rating inherited from publication venue: Wiley Online Library
This is a financial economics paper about stock market circuit breakers with limited direct relevance to AI safety; it may be tangentially relevant to discussions of automated trading safeguards or kill-switch analogies in AI systems.
Metadata
Summary
This paper analyzes the unintended consequences of circuit breakers in financial markets, showing that while these trading halts are designed to stabilize markets during volatility, they can produce adverse effects by distorting trading behavior and price discovery. The authors develop a theoretical model examining how circuit breakers interact with investor behavior and market dynamics.
Key Points
- •Circuit breakers intended to curb volatility can paradoxically accelerate selling pressure as traders rush to exit before trading halts trigger.
- •The paper models how anticipation of circuit breakers distorts price discovery and liquidity provision in financial markets.
- •Regulatory interventions in markets can have systemic unintended consequences that undermine their original stabilization goals.
- •The analysis has implications for how market circuit breakers should be designed to minimize perverse incentive effects.
- •Published in Journal of Finance Vol. 79 (2024) by MIT Sloan and Boston University researchers.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| AI Flash Dynamics | Risk | 64.0 |
Cached Content Preview
# The Dark Side of Circuit Breakers Authors: HUI CHEN, ANTON PETUKHOV, JIANG WANG, HAO XING Journal: The Journal of Finance Published: 2024-04 DOI: 10.1111/jofi.13310 ## Abstract ABSTRACTMarket‐wide circuit breakers are trading halts aimed at stabilizing the market during dramatic price declines. Using an intertemporal equilibrium model, we show that a circuit breaker significantly alters market dynamics and affects investor welfare. As the market approaches the circuit breaker, price volatility rises drastically, accelerating the chance of triggering the circuit breaker—the so‐called “magnet effect,” returns exhibit increasing negative skewness, and trading activity spikes up. Our empirical analysis supports the model's predictions. Circuit breakers can affect overall welfare negatively or positively, depending on the relative significance of investors' trading motives for risk sharing versus irrational speculation.
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