Company Events & EarningsCore researchlive in productionNew

Item 502 Executive Departure

Updated dailyData needs: mediumshort only

2015

Fee, C. E., Hadlock, C. J., Pierce, J. R. (2015). "Forced CEO Turnover, New CEO Contracts, and CEO Pay Concessions." Journal of Financial Economics, 117(3), 654-672. Also Eisfeldt-Kuhnen 2013 "CEO Turnover in a Competitive Assignment Framework."

Read the paper →

In plain terms

When a public company files an 8-K saying an executive is leaving, the stock typically drops 3% within 60 days.

How it works

8-K Item 5.02 (Departure/Appointment of Officers). Fee et al find ~-3% abnormal return on the 8-K filing window, holding through 60d. Forced departures stronger (-5% to -15%).

Live results

3 times picked on its own · 192 times inside a blend (184 beat the stock) · updated 2026-06-06

This strategy is a frequent ingredient in blends that combine a few strategies on one stock. It has contributed to 192 such blended picks (184 of which beat simply holding the stock). Picking it on its own is only one of the ways it shows up.

How its picks scored vs. buy & hold

Each pick is graded on a recent year it was never tuned on, against simply owning the same stock

Where its edge concentrates

Share of picks in each company-size group that beat buy & hold

How often it trades

Active vs. patient. Bars on the left mean it waits for rare setups; bars on the right mean it trades often

Return vs. buy & hold

How much each pick beat or trailed simply owning the stock over the test year (extreme microcap moves trimmed)

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Data dependencies

SEC 8k events
Item-coded 8-K events (1.01 material agreements, 4.02 non-reliance, etc.).
Daily prices
Adjusted-close OHLCV for every US-listed ticker; primary price feed.

Expected edge

Reported return: ~-3% CAR over 60d
Tested over: T+0 to T+60d

Fee-Hadlock-Pierce 2015: ~-3% CAR baseline, -5% to -15% on forced subset over 30-60d.

Example tickers where this is likely to fire

GE WFC INTC BA BABA

Illustrative only, the signal fires based on the live data, not a fixed list.

Related families

Item 402 Non RelianceCompany Events & Earnings

When a company files an 8-K Item 4.02 saying its old financials shouldn't be trusted, the stock drops 8-15% in 3 days.

Event AwareCompany Events & Earnings

Take any base trend signal and turn it OFF for several days around earnings dates, where price reactions are too noisy/unfair to the rule.

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