Information Exchange and the Limits of Arbitrage

Evidence suggests that arbitragers exchange investment ideas. We analyze why and under what circumstances sharing occurs. Our model suggests that sharing ideas will lead to the following: more efficient asset prices, larger arbitrager profits, and correlated arbitrager returns. We predict that arbitragers will exchange ideas in markets where arbitragers are capital constrained, noise trader influence is high, and arbitrage investors are more loss averse. We also predict that arbitrage networks can lead to crowded trades, which can create systematic risk in extreme market circumstances.