An empirical analysis of algorithmic trading around earnings announcements

This study examines the impact of corporate earnings announcements on trading activity and speed of price adjustment, analyzing algorithmic and non-algorithmic trades during the immediate period pre- and post-corporate earnings announcements. We confirm that algorithms react faster and more correctly to announcements than non-algorithmic traders. During the initial surge in trading activity in the first 90 s after the announcement, algorithms time their trades better than non-algorithmic traders, hence algorithms tend to be profitable, while non-algorithmic traders make losing trades over the same time period. During the pre-announcement period, non-algorithmic volume imbalance leads algorithmic volume imbalance, however, in the post announcement period, the direction of the lead-lag association is exactly reversed. Our results suggest that as algorithms are the fastest traders, their trading accelerates the information incorporation process.