The Determinants of Execution Costs in Short-Term Money Markets

Abstract

Prior research attributes the observed negative relation between execution costs and trade size in opaque markets to two factors-information asymmetry and broker-client relationships. We provide evidence that a trader's ex ante transaction price information and the relationship traders have with their brokers are both significant determinants of a trader's execution costs in an opaque market; however, traders who establish strong relationships with their brokers will achieve a greater reduction in execution costs than traders with ex ante transaction price information. We also find evidence that trade size has little explanatory power after controlling for a trader's ex ante transaction price information and broker-client relationships.