Impact of Anonymity on Liquidity in Limit Order Books: Evidence from Cross-listed Stocks Jane Chau* Corresponding author: PhD candidate in the School of Accounting and Finance University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia Email:
[email protected] Alex Frino CEO of Capital Markets CRC Limited & Professor of finance in the Discipline of Finance The University of Sydney Business School Email:
[email protected]. Gary Tian Professor of finance in the School of Accounting and Finance University of Wollongong Email:
[email protected] Shiguang Ma Senior Lecturer in the School of Accounting and Finance University of Wollongong Email:
[email protected]. This Draft: 25 November, 2012 * Jane Chau is supported by the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre Scholarship. The authors thank the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia-Pacific (SIRCA) for the provision of data. 1 Abstract This paper examines anonymity effects on liquidity migration of cross-listed stocks using a natural experiment created by the staggered move to anonymity regime undertaken by ASX and NZX. The 2SLS instrumental variable estimation shows two interesting trends. When considering liquidity impact on cross-listed stocks after ASX switched to anonymous trading, bid-ask spreads, quoted depth and trading volume improve on ASX, but deteriorate on NZX. On the other hand, when considering NZX’s adoption of anonymous trading, liquidity decreases on ASX, but increases on NZX. Consistent with our hypothesis, anonymity attracts the trading of cross-listed stocks from the foreign counterparty. Results also suggest the existence of commonality in liquidity in financial markets, and the inclusion of this commonality in natural experiment studies may be necessary.