Shared constraint
Institutions remain heterogeneous, but a common mandate, risk limit, market mechanism, or regulation narrows the set of feasible actions.
A research programme in financial economics
Markets do not only
process information.
They synchronize institutions.
Institutional Market Dynamics studies how shared constraints reshape portfolios, concentrate demand, and reorganize the covariance structure of markets.
Cconstraint
Agradient
Spressure
Γcovariance
One geometry.
Many institutional constraints.
01 / Core idea
Information explains what markets learn.
IMD explains how institutions must act.
The central claim is that heterogeneous institutions can become endogenously synchronized when they optimize under a shared constraint. The mechanism is complementary to information economics: it explains common movement without requiring a common news shock.
Complementary to information economics. Not agent-based. Not a taxonomy.
Common gradient
The institution-invariant component of the constraint survives aggregation and creates a directional pressure in portfolio demand.
Synchronized market
Concentrated demand changes covariance along the dominant pressure direction, producing measurable correlation lift and spillovers.
The synchronization law
Common gradient → synchronization pressure → dominant channel → covariance shift
Γ = Φ(D / MC)02 / Research programme
A theory tree,
not a paper list.
IMD is the umbrella research programme. IST supplies the theory ontology; Constraint Geometry turns it into a reusable method; Yang (2026b) and the Korea studies carry the framework into empirical identification.
IMD-1
Theoretical foundation
Institutional Synchronization Theory
Defines synchronization equilibrium and the causal chain from lower portfolio dispersion to concentrated demand and amplified price response.
IMD-2
Formal method
Constraint Geometry of Institutional Synchronization
Defines the IST-admissible class, common gradient, synchronization pressure, Dominance Principle, and the Synchronization Law.
IMD-2b
Methodological layer
A Constraint Geometry State-Space Model of Dynamic Correlation
Develops a constraint-preserving state-space framework for dynamic correlation, combining intrinsic geometry with iterated Laplace smoothing and an empirical demonstration on ENSO-driven commodity markets.
Yang 2026b
Empirical anchor
Leveraged ETF Reform and Intra-Sector Correlation Dynamics: Evidence from Korea's KOSPI
Provides the empirical anchor for the IMD-2 Scaling Law (κ ≈ 16.4) using Korea's leveraged-ETF reform.
WMMAO
Related IMD Programme Paper
When Markets Move as One: Institutional Synchronization after Trading Halts — Evidence from Korea's 2026 Halt Cluster
Documents the cross-sectional footprint of institutional synchronization when trading halts interrupt, store, and release latent order imbalance.
03 / Representative papers
Five papers. One accumulating argument.
Formal method · v1.0-SSRN · 43 pages01
Constraint Geometry of Institutional Synchronization
A unified representation of benchmark tracking, Value-at-Risk, ETF creation–redemption, and short-sale constraints through a single equilibrium object: the common gradient.
View on SSRNIMD-2b · Methodological layer02
A Constraint Geometry State-Space Model of Dynamic Correlation
Develops a constraint-preserving state-space framework for dynamic correlation, combining intrinsic geometry with iterated Laplace smoothing and an empirical demonstration on ENSO-driven commodity markets.
View on SSRNTheoretical foundation03
Institutional Synchronization Theory
Explains how heterogeneous institutions become endogenously coupled under shared constraints—without requiring common information arrival.
View on SSRNEmpirical anchor04
Leveraged ETF Reform and Intra-Sector Correlation Dynamics: Evidence from Korea's KOSPI
Evidence from Korea's KOSPI on how leveraged-ETF reform reshaped intra-sector correlation dynamics and the institutional channel behind market co-movement.
View on SSRNRelated IMD Programme Paper05
When Markets Move as One: Institutional Synchronization after Trading Halts — Evidence from Korea's 2026 Halt Cluster
Uses the KRX halt cluster as the first empirical showcase of how institutional constraints synchronize rebalancing, volatility, and spillovers.
View on SSRN04 / Research frontier
The method is a research engine,
not a paper label.
The next phase asks when constraints activate, how their channels can be separately identified, and where the geometry travels next.
Dynamic Constraint Activation
Time-varying constraints, endogenous activation, path dependence, and a Bellman formulation of institutional synchronization.
Identification Protocol
A cross-channel horse race using benchmark reconstitutions, VaR regimes, ETF launches, and short-sale interventions.
Emerging Constraint Classes
New constraint classes: ESG mandates, insurer capital rules, bank leverage, pension funding, and policy design.
“Synchronization is the theory ontology.
Constraint is one source of synchronization.”
Institutional Market Dynamics
Research programme · 2026—