Chakrabarty, Bidisha and Moulton, Pamela C. and Wang, Xu (Frank), Attention Effects in a High-Frequency World (July 23, 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2634621

“How does limited attention affect stock prices in today’s computer-driven financial markets? We study this issue by re-examining the effects of limited attention using a dataset that separately identifies trades made by high-frequency traders (HFTs, or computers) versus those made by non-high-frequency traders (human decision-makers). We employ a set of six attention proxies to identify earnings announcements with low investor attention: announcements made on Fridays and on days with multiple earnings announcements, and announcements followed by slow analyst forecast adjustments, high news distraction, low EDGAR download volume, and low Google search volume. Across multiple attention proxies, we find that HFT trading improves the responsiveness of prices by increasing the short-horizon price response and reducing the long-term price drift following earnings surprises, diminishing the inefficiencies previously observed around low-attention announcements. Our results highlight the changing role of attention with the rise of high-frequency trading in recent years.”