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The objective of this study is to provide empirical documentation on the risk-adjusted performance of portfolios formed by investing in a Cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin and a risk-free asset. The study evaluates the performance of these Bitcoin-spiked portfolios using statistical measures grounded in modern portfolio theory. Market returns are adjusted for the degree of total risk, systematic risk, and downside risk inherent in each portfolio, and the securities are then ranked on the basis of risk-adjusted performance. In addition to standard Sharpe, Jensen, and Treynor performance measures, two newer evaluation metrics, the Modigliani and Sortino measures, are used for ranking the portfolios. We report that these portfolios have varying levels of risk and return. Our key finding is that these portfolios’ risk-adjusted returns are not only quite impressive but also exceed that of S&P 500, our benchmark market portfolio. The implication of our results is that investors with higher risk tolerance could earn substantially higher returns by including a larger percentage of Bitcoin in their portfolios. Our results should be informative to individual and institutional investors contemplating investing in cryptocurrencies but aware of their high risk.

This study examines whether there is a causal relationship between selected stock markets in Asia and the US. Based on stock values from a sample of nine Asian stock markets, we find a positive correlation with US stock market prices in most cases, the exception being Vietnam. Our results indicate significant long-run and short-run causality in both directions between the Asian and US stock markets. These findings show that, while both sets of markets are integrated, there are still valuable opportunities for international investors to diversify their portfolios in the US and Asia.

This paper examines the relationship between asset volatility and leverage for the three largest economies (based on purchasing power parity) in the world; US, China, and India. Collectively, these economies represent Int$56,269 billion of economic power, making it important to understand the relationship among these economies that provide valuable investment opportunities for investors. We focus on a volatile period in economic history starting in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis began. Using autoregressive models, we find that Chinese stock markets have the highest volatility among the three stock markets while the US stock market has the highest average returns. The Chinese market is less efficient than the US and Indian stock markets since the impact of new information takes longer to be reflected in stock prices. Our results show that the unconditional correlation among these stock markets is significant and positive although the correlation values are low in magnitude. We also find that past market volatility is a good indicator of future market volatility in our sample. The results show that positive stock market returns result in lower volatility compared to negative stock market returns. These results demonstrate that the largest economies of the world are highly integrated and investors should consider volatility and leverage besides returns when investing in these countries.

In this paper, we study the long-run operating performance of preferred stock issuers. We use three different measures of operating performance; pre-tax cash flows, profit margin and return on assets. We study the performance of industrial firms, financial firms, and utilities separately, as well as the performance of the whole sample. Our results indicate that the operating performance of preferred stock issuers as a whole declines in the three-years before the issue. We find that profitability continues to decline after the issue. This finding is consistent with earlier findings on bond and common stock issuers. We also find that the decline in profitability is more pronounced for financial firms, although the cash flows of financial firms increase after the offering. The results show that the operating performance after the issue is worse for firms that raise large amounts of capital through the issue. There is also some evidence that preferred stock issuers with information asymmetry have lower operating performance following the issue.

This paper examines the influence of bond design on the long-run operating performance of convertible bond issuers and the determinants of this performance. Bonds are classified as equity-like and debt-like according to their probability of conversion at the time of the issue. The measure of long-run operating performance is the pre-tax cash flows of the firm. The results show that in the three years before the offering equity-like convertibles have better performance than debt-like convertibles while the performance in the three years after the offering is similar for the two groups of firms. The results also show that the factors that determine the long-run operating performance of equity-like and debt-like offerings are different. For example, the rating of the bond issued has a more positive influence on the performance of equity-like issues compared to debt-like issues. The level of information asymmetry, on the other hand, has a more negative influence on the performance of equity-like issues. The study contributes to the literature by incorporating convertible bond design into the study of the long-run operating performance of these bonds.

We examine the impact of macroeconomic and firm-specific factors on the likelihood of issuance and the structure of convertible bonds. Consistent with convertibles mitigating financial distress and contracting costs, our results indicate that the likelihood of issuing convertible bonds compared to straight bonds is higher for smaller firms, high growth firms, firms with high levels of information asymmetry, and firms with high bankruptcy costs. We also find that firms are more likely to issue convertibles during periods of high interest rates, and during industry and economic downturns - periods when bankruptcy and financial distress costs are higher, and investment opportunities and agency problems deteriorate. When we examine the variation in the ex-ante probability of conversion of convertibles, we find that this probability is higher (i.e., convertible bonds are more equity-like) for smaller firms and during periods of high interest rates. Since financial distress costs are high in these cases, issuing equity-like convertibles allows firms to mitigate these costs by reducing their fixed claims. We also find that the convertibles are structured to be more equity-like in firms with low firm-specific information asymmetry, and during periods of high economic growth. Overall, convertible bonds provide firms an element of flexibility over straight bonds and equity that allow firms to mitigate financial distress and contracting costs of moral hazard and adverse selection, and raise capital even during unfavorable conditions. However, we find that financially constrained firms are less able to exploit the flexibility provided by convertibles as their need for capital overshadows all other concerns.

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the motivations of firms that issue global bonds. Specifically, it seeks to test whether firms are motivated to offer bonds in multi‐markets to raise more capital, take advantage of being well‐known in foreign markets and/or owing to poor domestic economic conditions.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of global bond offerings of US industrial firms during the period 1995 to 2001 was studied. Logistic regressions were used to examine the determinants of the choice between global and domestic debt offerings. The factors that explain the stock price reaction of global bond issues were also analyzed.Findings – The authors find evidence suggesting that firms with a good reputation abroad and firms that want to raise large amounts of funds choose to issue global bonds instead of domestic bonds. Firms also tend to issue global bonds when the domestic economy is weak. In addition, the stock markets do not react more positively to global bond issues than domestic bond issue...

We analyze whether fluctuation in economy-wide factors cause time-series variation in the contracting costs of moral hazard, adverse selection, and financial distress for a sample of straight debt issues. We find that the announcement period abnormal returns to debt issues are more negative in periods of higher interest rates and in industry downturns. When we partition the impact of each issue- and firm-specific measure of contracting costs across high and low levels of each economy-wide variable, we find that only the measures of agency cost are significant in general, and measures of financial distress become relevant for those debt issues that constitute a leverage increase for the firms.

This study shows that contrary to what many managers argue, there is no overreaction to earnings warnings. Our sample consists of 986 firms that had significantly lower fourth-quarter earnings than analysts' forecasts during the period of 1983 to 1998. About 9% of these firms released quantitative earnings information while 6.5% of the firms disclosed qualitative earnings information prior to the formal earnings report dates. We find that although these firms experience significant stock price declines during the warning period, their share prices are still higher than the economic values, calculated using Ohlson's residual income model. Further, long-run operating and stock performance of these firms are not more positive than the performance of firms that do not warn. We also find that investor reaction to both warning and non-warning firms is positively related to the firms' long-run stock and operating performance. These findings support the argument that investors do not overreact to the warnings but base their reaction on anticipated long-term performance of the firms.

In this study we analyze the determinants of the type and structure of debt included in dual offerings of debt and equity. Our sample consists of 54 dual offerings of convertible bond and common stock (CBCS) and 258 dual offerings of straight bond and common stock (SBCS). We find that firms with high asset substitution problems are more likely to issue CBCS offerings instead of SBCS offerings. These firms are also more likely to include convertible bonds with a high probability of conversion in the issue. The probability of CBCS offerings is higher for firms with low information asymmetry and during high interest rate periods. We also find that the announcement returns of CBCS offerings are lower than the returns of SBCS offerings.

This paper examines the motivations of firms that conduct seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) after splitting stocks. We find no difference in equity announcement and issue period returns between these firms and other equity-issuing firms, suggesting that firms do not split stocks to reveal information and reduce adverse selection costs at the subsequent SEO. However, because investors react positively to split announcements, firms that issue equity after splitting stocks sell new shares at a higher price and raise more funds. We also find that firms split stocks to make the subsequent SEO more marketable to individual investors who are attracted to low-priced shares.

We examine the security issuance decisions of financially constrained firms. Since constrained firms are more susceptible to revenue management problems, our study sheds light on the financing behaviour of firms with revenue-related issues. Our results show that financially constrained firms obtain higher announcement returns than unconstrained firms when they issue bonds whereas the returns are similar when they issue stocks. Also, firms that face higher financial constraints are more likely to issue bonds than common stocks. We find that financially constrained firms assign different weights to the factors that affect the debt-equity choice than the weights assigned by unconstrained firms.

We investigate the relation between announcement period returns and the sequence of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) for industrial, financial, and utility firms making multiple offerings. For industrial firms, there is a monotonically positive relation between the returns and the sequence of issues. Further, the stock price reactions to the fourth and subsequent issues by industrial firms are insignificant. For firms that conduct at least two SEOs, there is no difference in returns between industrial firms and utilities or financial institutions. The lower negative returns for later announcements by industrial firms can be explained by reduced adverse selection costs.