Alicia Hill

Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) majoring in Finance, Economics and Commercial Transactions

Honours thesis topic

Inside the Insider: the impact of insider trading around takeover announcements.

My thesis used a sample of insider trading cases relating to takeover announcements on the ASX. The insider trading cases were 'alleged' insider trading cases, they were cases whereby ASX Surveillance had evaluated and documented these trades as insider trading cases. All these are passed to ASIC, but only a select few of these case will eventually be prosecuted. My thesis examined whether insider traders were impacting the price run-up seen prior to takeover announcements. My thesis also accounted for speculative trading which may have been causing the price run-up, by examining whether there was any price run-up prior to the first published article in major financial newspapers. Furthermore, my thesis also examined the whether insiders trade strategically or in large transactions.

Current role

I am an Analyst for Perpetual Select Funds. The fund is a multi-manager fund with over $2.8bn in FUM. We invest across all traditional asset classes as well as alternative assets. Essentially we are fund manager pickers, we select the best managers within each of the asset classes combining them to create an optimal portfolio.

Testimonial

What I enjoyed most about my honours year is finishing. No seriously it was about applying what I had learnt theoretically over the three years of my degree.

With the benefit of hindsight, the aspects of the honours year that have helped me in my job and career development are the way people interpret the fact that you have completed a thesis, that is it tells employers and potential employers of how your mind works, particularly your ability to assess and evaluate a complex hypothesis and develop a conclusion.

Advice for students contemplating honours

Someone gave me advice when I was deciding whether to complete my thesis and that was "don't bother doing it unless you are aiming for a First Class Honours", at the time I thought this person was crazy but in hindsight I would have to agree with them.