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The paper shows that the post earnings announcement drift is stronger for conglomerates, despite conglomerates being larger, more liquid, and more actively researched by investors. We attribute this finding to slower information processing about complex firms and show that the post earnings announcement drift is positively related to measures of conglomerate complexity. We also find that the post earnings announcement drift is stronger for new conglomerates than it is for existing conglomerates and that investors are most confused about complicated firms that expand from within rather than firms that diversify into new business segments via mergers and acquisitions.JEL Classification: D83, G12, G14, M40

The paper explains why firms with high dispersion of analyst forecasts earn low future returns. These firms beat the capital asset pricing model in periods of increasing aggregate volatility and thereby provide a hedge against aggregate volatility risk. The aggregate volatility risk factor can explain the abnormal return differential between high-and lowdisagreement firms. This return differential is higher for firms with abundant real options, and this fact can be explained by aggregate volatility risk. Aggregate volatility risk can also explain why the link between analyst disagreement and future returns is stronger for firms with high short-sale constraints.

I show that turnover is unrelated to several alternative measures of liquidity risk and in most cases negatively, not positively, related to liquidity. Consequently, neither liquidity nor liquidity risk explains why higher turnover predicts lower future returns. I find that the aggregate volatility risk factor explains why higher turnover predicts lower future returns. This paper shows that the negative relation between turnover and future returns is stronger for firms with option-like equity, and this regularity is also explained by the aggregate volatility risk factor. This paper was accepted by Wei Jiang, finance.

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