Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T22:17:22.248Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Common Stock Return Distributions during Homogeneous Activity Periods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Extract

According to a now classic study of stock market price behavior by Fama [6], the empirical distributions of daily log price relatives are usually stable Paretian, non-Gaussian. However, there appears to have been substantial reluctance to accept Fama's [6] research results as indicative of a fundamental return generating process which is stable Paretian, non-Gaussian. Blattberg and Gonedes [1], Clarke [4], Officer [18], Praetz [19], and Press [20] have each in their own way questioned the Fama [6] results. Most recently Hsu, Miller, and Wichern (HMW) [13] have suggested that in periods of homogeneous activity for a firm the empirical distribution of rates of return on a common share may be Gaussian, in other words, that the fundamental return generating process may be normal.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Business Administration, University of Washington 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1]Blattberg, R. C., and Gonedes, N. J.. “A Comparison of the Stable Paretian and Student Distributions as Statistical Models for Stock Prices.” Report No. 7272, Center for Mathematical Studies in Business and Economics. University of Chicago (1972).Google Scholar
[2]Blume, , Marshall, E.Portfolio Theory: A Step towards Its Practical Application.” Journal of Business (06 1970), p. 602612.Google Scholar
[3]Boness, A. James; Chen, A. H.; and Jatusipatak, S.. “Investigations of Nonstationarity in Prices.” Journal of Business, Vol. 47, No. 4 (10 1974), p. 518–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4]Clarke, P. K. “A Subordinated Stochastic Process Model with Finite Variance for Speculative Prices.” Discussion Paper No. 1, Center for Economic Research. University of Minnesota (1971).Google Scholar
[5]Croxton, F. E., and Cowden, D. J.. Applied General Statistics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc. (1955), p. 764.Google Scholar
[6]Fama, E. F.The Behavior of Stock Market Prices.” The Journal of Business, Vol. 38 (01 1965), pp. 34105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7]Fama, E. F. “Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work.” The Journal of Finance, Vol. 25 (05 1970), pp. 383417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8]Fama, E. F.; Fisher, L.; Jensen, M. C.; and Roll, R.. “The Adjustment of Stock Prices to New Information.” International Economic Review, Vol. 10 (02 1969), pp. 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9]Fisher, L., and Lorie, J. H.. “Rates of Return on Investments in Common Stocks.” Journal of Business, Vol. 37 (1964), p. 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[10]Gonedes, N. J.Efficient Capital Markets and External Accounting.” The Accounting Review, Vol. 47 (01 1972), pp. 1121.Google Scholar
[11]Gonedes, N. J.Evidence on the Information Content of Accounting Numbers: Accounting-Based and Market-Based Estimates of Systematic Risk.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (06 1973), p. 407–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[12]Grube, R. C. “Estimation of Beta Risk Components for Reduction of Prediction Errors in Portfolio Models.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University (1974).Google Scholar
[13]Hsu, D. A.; Miller, R. B.; and Wichern, D. W.. “On the Stable Paretian Behavior of Stock Market Prices.” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 39 (01 1966), pp. 139190.Google Scholar
[14]Jacob, , Nancy, L. “Theoretical and Empirical Aspects of the Measurement of Systematic Risk for Securities and Portfolios.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of California-Irvine (1970).Google Scholar
[15]King, B. F.Market and Industry Factors in Stock Price Behavior.” The Journal of Business, Vol. 39 (01 1966), pp. 139190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[16]Levy, Robert A.On the Short Term Stationarity of Beta Coefficients.” Financial Analysts Journal (11/12 1971), p. 5562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[17]Meyers, S. L.A Re-Examination of Market and Industry Factor in Stock Price Behavior.” The Journal of Finance, Vol. 28 (06 1973), pp. 695706.Google Scholar
[18]Officer, R. R.The Distribution of Stock Returns.” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 67 (12 1972), pp. 807812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[19]Praetz, P. D.The Distribution of Share Price Changes.” The Journal of Business, Vol. 45 (01 1972), pp. 4955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[20]Press, S. J.A Compound Events Model for Security Prices.” The Journal of Business, Vol. 45 (01 1972), pp. 4955.Google Scholar
[21]Smith, K. S.A Simulation Analysis of the Power of Several Tests for Detecting Heavy-Tailed Distributions.” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 70 (09 1975), pp. 662665.Google Scholar
[22]Tippett, L. H. C.On the Extreme Individuals and the Range of Samples Taken from a Normal Population.” Biometrika, Vol. 17 (1925), pp. 364387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[23]Uthoff, V. A.An Optimum Test Property of Two Well-Known Statistics.” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 65 (12 1970), pp. 15971600.Google Scholar