Behavioral Finance - Limits to arbitrage

4 important questions on Behavioral Finance - Limits to arbitrage

Limits to arbitrage: implementation costs

  • Transaction costs
    • bid/ask spread, direct transaction costs
    • Liquidity
  • Capital needed for margin requirements (good faith money)
    • Short selling
    • Derivatives

-> arbitrage might not be complete: costs can cause a band around fundamental price in which arbitrageurs do NOT find it worthwile to trade against mispricing

Limits to arbitrage: Noise trader risk

  • What if prices diverge even further in the short run?
    • Whatever force created the mispricing in the first place, could make it worse
    • Prices could move to 29 in Ams and 33 in Lnd
    • Short run loss for the arbitrageur
    • Margin call for short leg
  • Can be caused by 'noise traders'
    • Part of market participants who are not fully rational
    • If this part is large enough, it can affect prices

Limits to arbitrage: Fundamental risk

  • The market can move against the position of the arbitrageur
    • Markets are not complete
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What are the results of the limits to arbitrage? (if we follow the three arguments)

  • Prices might not always reflect the fundamental value
  • Typically, EMH is tested as a test for random walk of prices
    • Classic approach: There may be non-rational traders active in the market, but these will be driven out by rational arbitrageurs: prices are right -> no free lunch
    • Behavioral finance answers: This may not be the case: no free lunch does not mean that the prices are right

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