Technical Analysis, Liquidity, and Price Discovery∗ Felix Fritzy Christof Weinhardtz Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Karlsruhe Institute of Technology This version: 27.08.2016 Abstract Academic literature suggests that Technical Analysis (TA) plays a role in the decision making process of some investors. If TA traders act as uninformed noise traders and generate a relevant amount of trading volume, market quality could be affected. We analyze moving average (MA) trading signals as well as support and resistance levels with respect to market quality and price efficiency. For German large-cap stocks we find excess liquidity demand around MA signals and high limit order supply on support and resistance levels. Depending on signal type, spreads increase or remain unaffected which contra- dicts the mitigating effect of uninformed TA trading on adverse selection risks. The analysis of transitory and permanent price components demonstrates increasing pricing errors around TA signals, while for MA permanent price changes tend to increase of a larger magnitude. This suggests that liquidity demand in direction of the signal leads to persistent price deviations. JEL Classification: G12, G14 Keywords: Technical Analysis, Market Microstructure, Noise Trading, Liquidity ∗Financial support from Boerse Stuttgart is gratefully acknowledged. The Stuttgart Stock Exchange (Boerse Stuttgart) kindly provided us with databases. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Boerse Stuttgart Group. yE-mail:
[email protected]; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Research Group Financial Market Innovation, Englerstrasse 14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany. zE-mail:
[email protected]; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Information System & Marketing, Englerstrasse 14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.