Trading Patterns and Performance of Trader Types in Taiwan Futures Market

By analyzing the behavior and performance of trader types in the Taiwan futures market, we find that the foreign investors, futures dealers and security dealers are positive feedback traders, whereas individuals are contrarians. Evidence shows that the foreign investors and security dealers earn significant profits. We conclude that they are information-based traders. Instead, the individuals and futures traders perform poorly. However, weak evidence reveals that futures dealers are behavioral-based traders. As it is also reported, the cumulative performance demonstrates that foreign investors are the clear winners and individuals are the clear losers in the Taiwan futures market.