Implied and Realized Volatility in the Cross-Section of Equity Options

Implied and Realized Volatility in the Cross-Section of Equity Options
Author: Manuel Ammann
Publisher:
Total Pages: 30
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

Using a complete sample of US equity options, we analyze patterns of implied volatility in the cross-section of equity options with respect to stock characteristics. We find that high-beta stocks, small stocks, stocks with a low-market-to-book ratio, and non-momentum stocks trade at higher implied volatilities after controlling for historical volatility. We find evidence that implied volatility overestimates realized volatility for low-beta stocks, small caps, low-market-to-book stocks, and stocks with no momentum and vice versa. However, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that implied volatility is an unbiased predictor of realized volatility in the cross section.

The Information Content in Implied Idiosyncratic Volatility and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

The Information Content in Implied Idiosyncratic Volatility and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns
Author: Dean Diavatopoulos
Publisher:
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

Current literature is inconclusive as to whether idiosyncratic risk influences future stock returns and the direction of the impact. Prior studies are based on historical realized volatility. Implied volatilities from option prices represent the market's assessment of future risk and are likely a superior measure to historical realized volatility. We use implied idiosyncratic volatilities on firms with traded options to examine the relation between idiosyncratic volatility and future returns. We find a strong positive link between implied idiosyncratic risk and future returns. After considering the impact of implied idiosyncratic volatility, historical realized idiosyncratic volatility is unimportant. This performance is strongly tied to small size and high book-to-market equity firms.

The Joint Cross Section of Stocks and Options

The Joint Cross Section of Stocks and Options
Author: Byeong-Je An
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2013
Genre: Economics
ISBN:

Stocks with large increases in call implied volatilities over the previous month tend to have high future returns while stocks with large increases in put implied volatilities over the previous month tend to have low future returns. Sorting stocks ranked into decile portfolios by past call implied volatilities produces spreads in average returns of approximately 1% per month, and the return differences persist up to six months. The cross section of stock returns also predicts option-implied volatilities, with stocks with high past returns tending to have call and put option contracts which exhibit increases in implied volatility over the next month, but with decreasing realized volatility. These predictability patterns are consistent with rational models of informed trading.

Volatility Uncertainty and the Cross-Section of Option Returns

Volatility Uncertainty and the Cross-Section of Option Returns
Author: Jie Cao
Publisher:
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

This paper studies the relation between the uncertainty of volatility, measured as the volatility of volatility, and future delta-hedged equity option returns. We find that delta-hedged option returns consistently decrease in uncertainty of volatility. Our results hold for different measures of volatility such as implied volatility, EGARCH volatility from daily returns, and realized volatility from high-frequency data. The results are robust to firm characteristics, stock and option liquidity, volatility characteristics, and jump risks, and are not explained by common risk factors. Our findings suggest that option dealers charge a higher premium for single-name options with high uncertainty of volatility, because these stock options are more difficult to hedge.

Can We Forecast the Implied Volatility Surface Dynamics of Equity Options? Predictability and Economic Value Tests

Can We Forecast the Implied Volatility Surface Dynamics of Equity Options? Predictability and Economic Value Tests
Author: Alejandro Bernales
Publisher:
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

We examine whether the dynamics of the implied volatility surface of individual equity options contains exploitable predictability patterns. Predictability in implied volatilities is expected due to the learning behavior of agents in option markets. In particular, we explore the possibility that the dynamics of the implied volatility surface of individual equity options may be associated with movements in the volatility surface of S&P 500 index options. We present evidence of strong predictable features in the cross-section of equity options and of dynamic linkages between the implied volatility surfaces of equity options and S&P 500 index options. Moreover, time-variations in stock option volatility surfaces are best predicted by incorporating information from the dynamics in the implied volatility surface of S&P 500 index options. We analyze the economic value of such dynamic patterns using strategies that trade straddle and delta-hedged portfolios, and we find that before transaction costs such strategies produce abnormal risk-adjusted returns.

Volatility and Correlation

Volatility and Correlation
Author: Riccardo Rebonato
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 864
Release: 2005-07-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470091401

In Volatility and Correlation 2nd edition: The Perfect Hedger and the Fox, Rebonato looks at derivatives pricing from the angle of volatility and correlation. With both practical and theoretical applications, this is a thorough update of the highly successful Volatility & Correlation – with over 80% new or fully reworked material and is a must have both for practitioners and for students. The new and updated material includes a critical examination of the ‘perfect-replication’ approach to derivatives pricing, with special attention given to exotic options; a thorough analysis of the role of quadratic variation in derivatives pricing and hedging; a discussion of the informational efficiency of markets in commonly-used calibration and hedging practices. Treatment of new models including Variance Gamma, displaced diffusion, stochastic volatility for interest-rate smiles and equity/FX options. The book is split into four parts. Part I deals with a Black world without smiles, sets out the author’s ‘philosophical’ approach and covers deterministic volatility. Part II looks at smiles in equity and FX worlds. It begins with a review of relevant empirical information about smiles, and provides coverage of local-stochastic-volatility, general-stochastic-volatility, jump-diffusion and Variance-Gamma processes. Part II concludes with an important chapter that discusses if and to what extent one can dispense with an explicit specification of a model, and can directly prescribe the dynamics of the smile surface. Part III focusses on interest rates when the volatility is deterministic. Part IV extends this setting in order to account for smiles in a financially motivated and computationally tractable manner. In this final part the author deals with CEV processes, with diffusive stochastic volatility and with Markov-chain processes. Praise for the First Edition: “In this book, Dr Rebonato brings his penetrating eye to bear on option pricing and hedging.... The book is a must-read for those who already know the basics of options and are looking for an edge in applying the more sophisticated approaches that have recently been developed.” —Professor Ian Cooper, London Business School “Volatility and correlation are at the very core of all option pricing and hedging. In this book, Riccardo Rebonato presents the subject in his characteristically elegant and simple fashion...A rare combination of intellectual insight and practical common sense.” —Anthony Neuberger, London Business School

Volatility Spreads and Expected Stock Returns

Volatility Spreads and Expected Stock Returns
Author: Turan G. Bali
Publisher:
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

We examine the relation between expected future volatility (options' implied volatility) and the cross-section of expected returns. A trading strategy buying stocks in the highest implied volatility quintile and shorting stocks in the lowest implied volatility quintile generates insignificant returns. A similar strategy using one-month lagged realized volatility generates significantly negative returns. To investigate the differences and interactions between alternative measures of total risk, we estimate three principal components based on realized volatility, call implied and put implied volatility. Long-short trading strategies generate significant returns only for the second and the third principal components. We find that the second principal component is related to the realized-implied volatility spread which can be viewed as a proxy for volatility risk. We find that the third principal component is related to the call-put implied volatility spread that reflects future price increase of the underlying stock.

Option-Implied Equity Risk and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

Option-Implied Equity Risk and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns
Author: Te-Feng Chen
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

Using forward-looking information in the options market, we introduce a new method for better identifying systematic market risk as a predictor for the cross-section of stock returns. Empirical results show that there is a significantly positive relation between our option-implied beta and subsequent stock returns, in which a long-short portfolio formed on the option-implied beta generates an average monthly risk-adjusted return of 0.96%. In support of its economic significance, we further find that our option-implied beta significantly predicts the future realized betas and that the associated risk premium is a strong predictor of future market returns.

Implied Volatility Functions

Implied Volatility Functions
Author: Bernard Dumas
Publisher:
Total Pages: 34
Release: 1996
Genre: Options (Finance)
ISBN:

Abstract: Black and Scholes (1973) implied volatilities tend to be systematically related to the option's exercise price and time to expiration. Derman and Kani (1994), Dupire (1994), and Rubinstein (1994) attribute this behavior to the fact that the Black-Scholes constant volatility assumption is violated in practice. These authors hypothesize that the volatility of the underlying asset's return is a deterministic function of the asset price and time and develop the deterministic volatility function (DVF) option valuation model, which has the potential of fitting the observed cross-section of option prices exactly. Using a sample of S & P 500 index options during the period June 1988 through December 1993, we evaluate the economic significance of the implied deterministic volatility function by examining the predictive and hedging performance of the DV option valuation model. We find that its performance is worse than that of an ad hoc Black-Scholes model with variable implied volatilities.