Trading activity on social trading platforms – a behavioral approach*

PurposeSocial trading platforms are considered to be amongst the major innovations in online trading. The purpose of this article is to analyze the trading activity of traders on social trading networks by taking a behavioral approach. Additionally, the authors investigate the factors that influence the irrational part of trading activity derived from the key characteristics of these platforms, i.e. those dealing with social interaction.Design/methodology/approachThe investigation utilizes an extensive set of trading data from two major platforms in Germany to study the trading behavior. The authors apply a fixed effects two-stage least squares (2SLS) approach to quantify the relationship between trading activity and performance and define overconfidence as the part of trading activity that is irrationally motivated and results in negative returns.FindingsThe results provide evidence for the negative relationship between overconfidence and return on social trading platforms. The authors find that the number of followers and some platform-specific features significantly affect the trading behavior of the traders.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the existing literature by exploring how the novel social interaction characteristics of online trading impact trading activity by giving rise to a new dimension of overconfidence. In addition, the authors evidence that the different frameworks of the platforms motivate heterogenous behavioral responses by the signalers. Finally, the authors refine existing studies by applying a distinct methodology for modeling overconfidence.

Avian influenza transmission risk along live poultry trading networks in Bangladesh

Live animal markets are known hotspots of zoonotic disease emergence. To mitigate those risks, we need to understand how networks shaped by trading practices influence disease spread. Yet, those practices are rarely recorded in high-risk settings. Through a large cross-sectional study, we assessed the potential impact of live poultry trading networks’ structures on avian influenza transmission dynamics in Bangladesh. Networks promoted mixing between chickens sourced from different farming systems and geographical locations, fostering co-circulation of viral strains of diverse origins in markets. Viral transmission models suggested that the observed rise in viral prevalence from farms to markets was unlikely explained by intra-market transmission alone, but substantially influenced by transmission occurring in upstream network nodes. Disease control interventions should therefore alter the entire network structures. However, as networks differed between chicken types and city supplied, standardised interventions are unlikely to be effective, and should be tailored to local structural characteristics.

Stability Analysis of the World Energy Trade Structure by Multiscale Embedding

This study investigates the dynamic trading network structure of the international crude oil and gas market from year 2012 to 2017. We employed the dynamical similarity analysis at different time scales by inducing a multiscale embedding for dimensionality reduction. This analysis quantifies the effect of a global event on the dependencies and correlation stability at both the country and world level, which covers the top 53 countries. The response of China’s trading structure toward events after the unexpected 2014 price drop is compared with other major traders. China, as the world’s largest importing country, lacks strong stability under global events and could be greatly affected by a supply shortage, especially in the gas market. The trend of multi-polarization on the market share gives a chance for China to construct closer relationships with more stable exporters and join in the trade loop of major countries to improve its position in the energy trading networks. The hidden features of trade correlation may provide a deeper understanding of the robustness of relationship and risk resistance.

“Traditional” Venḓa Women’s Beadwork Accessing the Contemporary Tourist Market in South Africa

Beads and beadwork have played a role in South Africa’s Limpopo Province dating back to the pre-colonial times. Whether the beads were produced locally or imported via trading networks, the region already had a rich tradition of constructing beadwork before the arrival of Europeans. Today, this tradition is continued by new generations of women beaders. It has been found that literature on contemporary Limpopo beadwork produced by Vhavenḓa women is scarce. This article addressed this imbalance. It is vital to state that, during the last decade and in the context of South African heritage and tourism, there has been a steadily increasing number of scholarly studies on Nguni beadwork. This study offered new insights into contemporary beadwork traditions. It also contributed to an understanding of Vhavenḓa beading by drawing on the knowledge and experience of beadworkers, identifying influences from the past, and countering some stereotypical perceptions of beadwork production.

"Por sua liberdade me oferece uma escrava": alforrias por substituição na Bahia, 1800-1850

<p>O artigo discute a alforria por substituição, modalidade em que o escravo trocava sua liberdade dando em troca outro escravo, tornando-se, pelo menos temporariamente, um senhor de escravos escravizado. Os dados derivam de mais de 400 casos de alforrias registradas nos tabeliães de Salvador, destacando a cidade como local no Brasil em que esse tipo de alforria foi mais usado. O artigo relaciona a substituição ao volume do tráfico transatlântico, à escravidão urbana e ao acesso a redes do tráfico pelos escravos que investiam em outros escravos. Uma das possíveis explicações para o fenômeno vem da natureza da escravidão na parte da África onde se originava a maioria dos cativos baianos, onde a posse de escravos por outros escravos era prática comum. Mas a relação senhor/escravo ganha o centro da cena. Sendo a concessão da alforria prerrogativa senhorial, da mesma forma o era a licença para cativos formarem uma poupança para comprar seus substitutos. Discute-se as negociações entre senhores e alforriados, apontando circunstâncias envolvidas. Vários aspectos da negociação são revelados através de exemplos concretos. O artigo traça, entre outros achados quantitativos, os perfis étnico (com predominância de nagôs) e por gênero (com predominância de mulheres), tanto entre substitutos como entre substituídos, vinculando esse resultado à direção do fluxo do tráfico e à dinâmica do trabalho de ganho na cidade.</p><p>“For Her Freedom, She Offers me a Slave”: Manumission by Substitution in Bahia, 1800-1850</p><p>The article discusses manumission by substitution, in which a slave bought his/her freedom giving another slave in exchange, thus becoming, temporarily at least, an enslaved slaveowner. The data derives from more than 400 letters of manumission registered by public notaries in Salvador, making the city a leader in this type of manumission in Brazil. The article relates substitutions to the volume of the transatlantic slave trade, to urban slavery, and access to slave trading networks by the slaves who acquired captives. A possible explanation for the phenomenon is that in the part of Africa where most Bahian slaves originated, possession of slaves by other slaves was a common practice. But in Bahia master-slave relations gains center stage. The concession of manumission was the master’s prerogative, and so was permission for a slave to amass savings and use them to buy another slave. Negotiations between masters and slaves are discussed on the basis of concrete cases. Among other quantitative findings, the article also traces the ethnic (predominantly Nagô) and gender (predominantly female) profiles of both the substitutes and those they substituted, linking the results to both the direction of the slave trade and the dynamics of urban slavery.</p>Slave trade and urban slavery | Manumission by substitution | Nineteenth-century Bahia, Brazil

Funny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

Chiefly drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork in the district of Keqiao in Zhejiang Province since 2009, I argue that irregular financial transactions—conceptualized as “funny money” in this article—play a significant role in the sustenance of otherwise tenuous business relations between Indian traders and Chinese suppliers in the China–Dubai fabric trade. Much of the fabric exported from Keqiao to Dubai relies on intertwined formal and informal transactions operated by Indian trading networks. These labyrinthine transnational funny money transactions aim to circumvent institutional hurdles and overcome deficiencies in operating capital, yet inherent to this system is a cycle of payment lags that cause tense relations between payers and payees. Funny money transactions facilitate eventual payment in most cases most of the time and maintain enough trust to keep the trade network alive. Furthermore, the interlocking circuits of funny money also prevent the overaccumulation of wealth and power by any particular stakeholder involved in the international trade and defy or at least circumvent the formal political authority of state and financial institutions that seek to curtail such practices. These transactions thereby create a larger space for business survival among the grassroots players, especially Indian traders who may not have enough capital available when they initiate a deal with a Chinese supplier.

Slave Trades and Diaspora in the Middle East, 700 to 1900 CE

In the Middle East, Africa was only one of multiple sources of servile labor. Building on the legacy of earlier civilizations, the region drew on all of its immediate neighbors for slaves. Local kingdoms and empires arose, clashed, expanded, and adapted old and new slaving strategies from internal and external rivals. From the 7th century, the rapid expansion of Islam and the building of Muslim empires are salient features in this history, but many other historical developments played key roles. Ensuing encounters with other civilizations, empires, and trading networks frequently resulted in friction, mutual adaptation, or new cultural, political, or economic synergies. In the Middle East, Islamic practices toward slaves influenced all regional cultures, yet many variants emerged due to local customs; changing economic and political considerations; specific environmental conditions; and the experiences, cultures, and talents of the enslaved. Slaves were captured directly or purchased. In wars and raids, Middle Eastern armies captured enemy combatants and civilians to ransom or enslave. The mix of enslaved and servile persons brought into the region varied in its composition, reflecting the geographical areas of military actions, the development of powerful trading partners, and the extent of trading networks. Foreign merchants imported additional slaves from the Balkans, the Black Sea region, the islands and shores of the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and Africa—including the West African savanna, the Lake Chad region, Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Horn of Africa, particularly via the Swahili coast. These practices brought new servile populations as workers, domestic staff, concubines, soldiers, or bureaucrats to serve in imperial outposts, trading towns, or centers of agricultural, handicraft, or industrial production. The constant demand for servile labor was driven not only by expanding empires and new economic enterprises but also by growing urban populations, the multiple options for manumission under Islamic law, high mortality rates and low rates of reproduction among enslaved populations for social and medical reasons, and the resultant scarcity of second-generation slaves. Broadly speaking, enslaved Africans were more common in the southern tier of the Middle East and demand for them generally increased over time, as northern and internal sources of slaves dwindled. Enslaved persons, including Africans, served in numerous capacities and were dispersed throughout the Middle East and its areas of slave supply.

Building borders in a borderless land: English colonialism and the Alam Minangkabau of Sumatra, 1680�1730

This article adopts the concept of securitisation to understand the failure of the English East India Company�s attempt to build a territorial empire on the island of Sumatra in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Securitisation formed a key component of European colonialism, involving the creation of fortified and militarised borders both to exclude groups from entering newly defined territorial spaces, but also as a way to control goods, labour and resources within those spaces. Ultimately, this form of imperialism failed on the west coast of Sumatra, where a highly mobile society participated in a shared political culture that made any formal boundary or border between Malay states too difficult to enforce. Trading networks, religious affiliations, transregional kinship ties, and migratory circuits all worked to undermine the Company�s attempt to establish its authority over delineated territory and the people and goods within it.