Short Selling: Domestic and Foreign Performance Differences : A study of the Swedish Short Selling Market

Sammanfattning: The purpose and intent of this study is to conduct comparative research between domestic and foreign investors in regard to short selling positions on the Swedish financial market. The performance differences are measured by compounding short selling positions by the investors between 2015-2018. Two comparative methods were utilized to conduct this research: The cumulative abnormal return (CAR) and the buy-and-hold abnormal return, with each calculation being utilized in accordance with Barber & Lyon (1997). The produced results have been scrutinized via univariate descriptive statistics (t-test) and a regression in order to verify if there is any significant difference between the investors. The result of the study shows that there is a tangible, noteworthy difference in an average performance amongst the investors. We can now recognize that foreign investors who hold their short selling positions for a longer time-period demonstrate better performance. To compare with the domestic investors, their displayed trading behavior seems to be more unpredictable and they have not been performing as good in this selected time-interval.