How Dark Trading Harms Financial Markets

A-Tier
Journal: Economic Journal
Year: 2025
Volume: 135
Issue: 669
Pages: 1711-1733

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We design an experiment to analyse the consequences of dark trading in a financial market. The channel through which dark trading affects market efficiency critically depends on how information regarding fundamentals is distributed among investors. When information is concentrated in the hands of a few investors, possibly due to sparse investor connectedness or low media coverage, dark trading primarily impacts market efficiency by deteriorating the quality of asset prices. When information is diffused, dark trading no longer harms price discovery, but the unobserved liquidity entails welfare loss. Dark trading does not widen the earnings gap between informed and uninformed traders.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:econjl:v:135:y:2025:i:669:p:1711-1733.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-25