Trading out of sight: An analysis of cross-trading in mutual fund families

Alexander Eisele, Tamara Nefedova, Gianpaolo Parise, Kim Peijnenburg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

This paper explores how mutual fund groups set the price of in-house transactions among affiliated funds. We collect a data set of four million equity transactions and compare the pricing of trades crossed internally (cross-trades) with that of twin trades executed with external counterparties. While cross-trades should reduce transaction costs for both trading parties, we find that the price of cross-trades is set strategically to reallocate performance among sibling funds. Furthermore, we provide evidence that a large number of cross-trades are backdated. We discuss the implications for the literature on fund performance and the current regulatory debate.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)359-378
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Financial Economics
Volume135
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Backdating
  • Cross-trades
  • Monitoring
  • Mutual fund families
  • Transfer pricing

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