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Article
Did David Win a Battle or the War Against Goliath? Dynamic Return and Volatility Connectedness between the GameStop Stock and the High Short Interest Indices
SSRN Electronic Journal
  • David Y. Aharon, Ono Academic College
  • Renatas Kizys, University of Southampton
  • Zaghum Umar, Zayed University
  • Adam Zaremba, Montpellier Business School
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-18-2021
Abstract

Can a short-squeeze incident trigger financial contagion over the entire stock markets? The recent GameStop frenzy provides a unique natural experiment to explore this question. In this study, we examine the static and dynamic return and volatility connectedness among the GameStop stock, the U.S. stock market, and the novel market-wide and sectoral short-interest indices. Contrary to anecdotal evidence, we find that the GameStop stock is not a net transmitter, but rather a net recipient of return and volatility spillovers from other companies shorted in the market. This result agrees with a view that short-interest indices provide price discovery for shorted stocks. Therefore, although David might have won a battle against Goliath, he does not seem to win the war.

Disciplines
Keywords
  • Static and Dynamic Connectedness,
  • GameStop,
  • Short-Interest Index,
  • Stock Returns,
  • Return Volatility,
  • Spillovers,
  • WallStreetBets
Indexed in Scopus
No
Open Access
Yes
Open Access Type
Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3788155
Citation Information
David Y. Aharon, Renatas Kizys, Zaghum Umar and Adam Zaremba. "Did David Win a Battle or the War Against Goliath? Dynamic Return and Volatility Connectedness between the GameStop Stock and the High Short Interest Indices" SSRN Electronic Journal (2021) ISSN: <p><a href="https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/issn/1556-5068" target="_blank">1556-5068</a></p>
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/zaghum-umar/41/