Risk and return on newly listed stocks: the post-listing experience

Researchers consistently find that newly listed stocks underperform in the post‐listing period. It has been suggested that this anomalous finding may, in part, be explained away if the risk during this period is lower than at other times. Evidence is presented here that the riskiness of newly listed stocks undergoes a seasoning process. Instead of lower risk, riskiness is found to be greater immediately after listing than in later periods. This suggests that the post‐listing anomaly is actually worse than has been previously recognized.