This study uses two popular technical trading rules to assess whether the gradual liberalization of Taiwan's securities markets has improved the efficiency of its stock market. The results show that the two rules have considerable predictive power for 1983-1990, they become less predictive for 1991-1997, and they cannot predict the market for 1998-2005. These results indicate that the efficiency of Taiwan stock market has been greatly enhanced by the liberalization measures implemented over the last 20 years.j ere_448 389..394 JEL Classification Numbers: G12, G14.

In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, a series of reform and liberalization measures have been implemented in Singapore to upgrade its financial markets. This study investigates whether these measures have led to less profitability for those investors who employ technical rules for trading stocks. Our results show that the three trading rules consistently generate higher annual returns for 1988-1996 than those for 1999-2007. Further, they generally perform better than the buy-and-hold (BH) strategy for 1988-1996 but perform no better than the BH strategy for 1999-2007. These findings suggest that the efficiency of the Singapore stock market has been considerably enhanced by the measures implemented after the crisis.

One theoretical implication of cointegration, according to Granger (1986), is that asset prices in an efficient market cannot be cointegrated. Using price data on US Treasury STRIPS with maturities from 2/15/1997 to 8/15/2015, it is found that a set of three STRIPS series is often cointegrated. In addition, by setting up a costless hedge portfolio from three STRIPS with three different maturities, it is found that the hedge portfolio is often stationary and thus arbitrage opportunities are likely to occur. That is, because the hedge portfolio is costless and stationary, cash in can be done when the value of the hedge portfolio is either positive or negative. However, when taking liquidity, tax effects, and transaction costs into consideration, these arbitrage profits would be unlikely. Hence, it is concluded that the US Treasury STRIPS market is efficient.

The banking sector traditionally dominated Indonesia's financial system, and until the 1990s the stock market remained of little significance. Re-opened in 1977 after two decades of inactivity, the stock exchange made little contribution to Indonesia's development until a series of reform and deregulation measures were implemented from December 1987. This study examines the evolving role of the stock market in the financial system, and analyses changes in its efficiency over time. We find that stock market activity grew markedly in importance relative to banking after the reforms began to take effect, gaining the ascendancy in 2004 and moving well ahead subsequently. One contributor to this success is improvement in efficiency. Using two simple technical trading rules, we demonstrate that the stock exchange secondary market has indeed become significantly more efficient over time.

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