Liquidation Cascade and Anticipatory Trading: Evidence from the Structured Equity Product Market

We show that structured equity derivatives can cause significant price pressure of the underlying stock upon an event of dramatic payoff change. Moreover, one event causes another: the event cascade amplifies the magnitude of the impact. We find that a single event accounts for a -6.4% return on the event day, and it increases the probability of a subsequent event by 21.3%. Given the negative price impact, traders try to liquidate ahead of each other, exacerbating the degree of price pressure. Our results uncover the chain-reaction and (mis)coordination mechanism in complex derivatives markets that can provoke substantial price shocks.