Portfolio Choice with Market Closure and Implications for Liquidity Premia

Abstract

Most existing portfolio choice models ignore the prevalent periodic market closure and the fact that market volatility is significantly higher during trading periods. We find that market closure and the volatility difference across trading and nontrading periods significantly change optimal trading strategies. In addition, we numerically demonstrate that transaction costs can have a first order effect on liquidity premia that is largely comparable to empirical findings. Moreover, this effect on liquidity premia increases in the volatility difference, which is supported by our empirical analysis.

Keywords: Market Closure, Liquidity Premia, Portfolio Selection, Optimal Investment

JEL Classification: G12, D11, D91, G11, C61