We document a change in the nature of trading volume reactions to quarterly earnings announcements over the time period 1976-2005. Consistent with Landsman and Maydew (2002), we find that the magnitude of abnormal trading volume around quarterly earnings announcements has increased over time and that this increase is greater for large firms than small firms. We show, however, that this trend has reversed the negative relation between firm size and trading volume documented by Bamber (1987). Applying insights from recent trading volume theory, we predict and provide evidence that the increase in abnormal trading volume across time and firm size is due to increases in pre-announcement private information. Specifically, we show that the component of abnormal trading volume associated with price change, which theory suggests reflects pre-announcement private information, is increasing across time and firm size. Our results suggest that investors are motivated to acquire private information prior to earnings announcements about firms that have relatively high quality information environments. Thus, our results have implications for policies aimed at reducing information asymmetry between investors by increasing public disclosure.

Profit from earnings announcements, by taking targeted, short-term option positions explicitly timed to exploit them! Based on rigorous research and huge data sets, this book identifies the specific earnings-announcement trades most likely to yield profits, and teaches how to make these trades—in plain English, with real examples! Trading on Corporate Earnings News is the first practical, hands-on guide to profiting from earnings announcements. Writing for investors and traders at all experience levels, the authors show how to take targeted, short-term option positions that are explicitly timed to exploit the information in companies’ quarterly earnings announcements. They first present powerful findings of cutting-edge studies that have examined market reactions to quarterly earnings announcements, regularities of earnings surprises, and option trading around corporate events. Drawing on enormous data sets, they identify the types of earnings-announcement trades most likely to yield profits, based on the predictable impacts of variables such as firm size, visibility, past performance, analyst coverage, forecast dispersion, volatility, and the impact of restructurings and acquisitions. Next, they provide real examples of individual stocks–and, in some cases, conduct large sample tests–to guide investors in taking advantage of these documented regularities. Finally, they discuss crucial nuances and pitfalls that can powerfully impact performance.

I investigate whether firms with higher abnormal trading volume (ATV) around earnings announcements (EAs) outperform those with lower ATV over the short and long terms following the EA. In addition, I address whether any positive relation between ATV around EAs and future firm performance is weaker for firms with a higher proportion of shares held by sophisticated investors. Consistent with theories that attribute ATV around public announcements primarily to differing investor interpretations of the news and that link differential interpretation to future returns, I find that, for several years after an EA, firms in the highest decile of ATV significantly outperform those in the lowest decile. Further, I find that ATV and earnings surprises explain future returns incremental to the three Fama and French (1993) and momentum risk-factors. Next, consistent with the proportion of ATV driven by lack of consensus regarding the price being lower when the presence of rational investors is higher, I document that the level of investor sophistication-a proxy for investor rationality-attenuates the positive relation between ATV and future returns. Taken together, my study lends support to and links two streams of theories from financial economics, and demonstrates that trading volume reactions to EAs provide information about future returns and firm financial performance that cannot be deduced from the price reactions or the magnitudes of earnings surprises. My study also documents that the positive relation between ATV and future firm performance is sensitive to the level of security holdings of sophisticated investors.