An alternative approach to evaluating the agreement between financial markets

This research investigates that the price relationship between a stock index and its associated nearby futures markets can be explained by the cost-of-carry model using the concordance correlation (CC) coefficient in the US financial markets. The main purpose of this research is to confirm that the CC coefficient is an appropriate methodology to determine ex post arbitrage opportunities and to maximize ex ante arbitrage profits through the analysis of the price relationship derived from the cost-of-carry model. To increase the robustness of the results and to enable us to generalize our conclusions, this analysis is carried out in consideration of external uncertainty, including the marking-to-market procedure of futures contracts and the transaction cost on the stock index and its futures markets, under several assumptions related to the conditions of transactions. Examining transaction price data on the S&P 500 stock index and its futures markets shows that the CC coefficient gives a good result for ex ante arbitrage profits and is appropriate for analyzing the relationship between the observed stock index futures market price and its theoretical price derived from the cost-of-carry model.     

沪深300股指期货定价误差及影响因素分析

文章运用持有成本模型、无套利定价原理以及回归分析,分别对日交易数据、日内5分钟数据对我国沪深300股指期货的定价误差及影响定价误差幅度的因素进行了实证研究,研究表明我国沪深300股指期货的价格在大多数时间是偏高的,在考虑套利成本的情况下,股指期货的定价在大多数时间是有效率的,但是在股票市场大幅波动的时段,股指期货的定价在存在较大幅度的定价误差。从影响股指期货定价误差幅度的因素来看,距到期日越远定价误差越大,现货指数波动越剧烈定价误差越大,股指期货持仓量对定价误差没有显著影响,加息对定价误差的影响跟加息日期有关。     

存在市场摩擦条件下股指期货定价模型及其应用——以沪深300股指期货为例

依据无套利原理,考察存在市场摩擦条件下股指期货定价模型,并将其应用于我国股指期货市场,构建沪深300股指期货套利模型。该套利模型考虑了现实中存在的交易成本、借贷利差等市场摩擦因素对套利机会的影响,从而在实务中具有一定的参考价值。     

Examining the Equilibrium Relationship Between the Shanghai 50 Stock Index Futures and the Shanghai 50 ETF Options Markets

Based on the put-call-futures parity model, this article studies the equilibrium relationship between the Shanghai 50 stock index futures and the Shanghai 50 Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) options markets by analyzing the arbitrage opportunities and profits between these two derivative markets. This article reveals that the cost spread, option volatility, days from the expiration date, moneyness of options, trading strategy, and policy factors all have a great impact on the arbitrage profits and opportunities. In addition, significant arbitrage profits and opportunities indicate violations of put-call-futures parity. Although no equilibrium relationship exists between the Shanghai 50 stock index futures and the Shanghai 50 ETF options markets, efficiency in these markets has gradually improved.     

Modelling International Price Relationships and Interdependencies Between the Stock Index and Stock Index Futures Markets of Three EU Countries: A Multivariate Analysis

This paper addresses the important relationship between stock index and stock index futures markets in an international context. By simply examining the spot‐futures relationship within a single country as most of the extant literature does and thus ignoring possible market interdependencies between countries, the dynamics of price adjustments may be misspecified and thus findings misleading. The main contribution of the paper is to improve our understanding of the pricing relationship between spot and futures markets in the light of international market interdependencies. Using a multivariate VAR‐EGARCH methodology, the paper investigates stock index and stock index futures market interdependence, that is lead‐lag relationships and volatility interactions between the stock and futures markets of three main European countries, namely France, Germany and the UK. In addition, the paper explicitly accounts for potential asymmetries that may exist in the volatility transmission mechanism between these markets. The main conclusions of the paper imply that investors need to account for market interactions across countries to fully and correctly exploit the potential for hedging and diversification.     

Futures Options and the Volatility of Futures Prices

Assuming nonstochastic interest rates, European futures options are shown to be European options written on a particular asset referred to as a futures bond. Consequently, standard option pricing results may be invoked and standard option pricing techniques may be employed in the case of European futures options. Additional arbitrage restrictions on American futures options are derived. The efficiency of a number of futures option markets is examined. Assuming that at-the-money American futures options are priced accurately by Black's European futures option pricing model, the relationship between market participants' ex ante assessment of futures price volatility and the term to maturity of the underlying futures contract is also investigated empirically.     

Informational linkage and price discovery between China's futures and spot markets: Evidence from the US–China trade dispute

This study examines the effects of the US–China trade dispute on the informational linkages and price discovery between China's futures and spot markets. Using the daily price data of four assets representing the real and financial sectors in China during 2016–2019, empirical findings suggest that the futures–spot correlations for the stock index, copper, and corn markets have increased significantly during the trade dispute. In contrast, sharp declines in the dynamic correlations between gold futures and spot markets, as gold is a safe haven asset, are observed during the event window. During uncertainty disturbance (i.e., the trade dispute), the futures–spot cointegrated relationships in the gold and corn markets are found to adjust more quickly and efficiently, whereas the correction speeds of the market deviations for the stock index and copper market are moderately slower. With the intensive integration of market expectations with uncertainty shocks, the economic shocks of trade disputes tend to remarkably improve the pricing efficiency of China's futures markets, except for the gold futures market. China's spot markets, however, seem to be more sensitive to the noise trades and information disturbances arising from the trade dispute.     

Index arbitrage and the pricing relationship between Australian stock index futures and their underlying shares

This paper examines the mispricing of Australian stock index futures. Exogenous and endogenous price volatility is confirmed to have a positive impact on the mispricing spread, after filtering out predictable time series components. More accurate pricing associated with surprise trading volume in the underlying stocks is consistent with arbitrageurs acting to narrow price disparities relative to the futures market. Ex‐ante interest rate volatility is the primary source of risk faced by arbitrageurs and fluctuations in the transaction cost of opening index arbitrage positions influence the extent to which they drive prices towards theoretical fair values.     

A Likelihood Ratio Test of Price Volatilities: Comparing Stock Index Spot and Futures

This paper uses three methods to estimate the price volatility of two stock market indexes and their corresponding futures contracts. The classic variance measure of volatility is supplemented with two newer measures, derived from the Garman-Klass and Ball-Torous estimators. A likelihood ratio test is used to compare the classic variance measure of price volatilities of two stock market indexes and their corresponding futures contracts during the bull market of the 1980s. The stock market volatilities of the Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) indexes were found to be significantly lower than their respective futures price volatilities. Since information may flow faster in the futures markets than in the corresponding stock market, our results support Ross's information-volatility hypothesis. It was also noted that the NYSE spot volatility was lower than the S&P 500 spot volatility. If the rate of information flow and firm size are positively related, then the lower NYSE spot volatility is explained by the size effect. The futures price volatilities for the two indexes were insignificantly different from each other. With stock index spot-futures price correlations approaching unity, one implication of our results for index futures activity is that smaller positions in futures contracts may suffice to achieve hedging or arbitrage goals.     

Investor structure and the informational efficiency of commodity futures prices

This article investigates the impact of the trading positions of hedgers (i.e., producers, merchants, processors, or users of a commodity), speculators (i.e., commodity pool operators, trading advisors, or hedge funds), and swap dealers on the price formation process in the agricultural, metal, and energy futures markets. The hedgers' relative positions exert negative impacts on price efficiency in commodity futures markets. Hedgers are less likely to be information motivated, so their trading delays the price formation process. However, speculators' positions have positive impacts on price efficiency because speculators correct pricing errors. This study also offers evidence that the role of swap dealers, similar to speculators in futures markets, is to provide liquidity and cross-market arbitrage. These findings highlight the role of producers, hedge funds, and swap dealers in price formation processes in commodity futures—information that is beneficial to academics, practitioners, and regulators.     

Feedback trading in stock index futures: Evidence from South Africa

This study tests whether investors and speculators in stock index futures contracts on the South African stock market use feedback trading strategies. Feedback trading can be destabilizing and impede on the risk mitigation and price discovery functions of futures contracts. Using the Sentana and Wadhwani (1992) model, and accounting for the global financial crisis, we find no evidence of feedback trading in the Top40 futures index or the Top40 mini futures index contracts. Our findings have important implications for investors who wish to use index futures to mitigate risk or exploit arbitrage opportunities and regulators concerned about the destabilizing effects of futures trading.     

The effects of newly listed derivatives in a thin stock market

This study examines the informational feedback effects associated to the listing and trading of derivatives in Switzerland. The observed changes in the price and higher moments of stock returns are representative of a thin stock market. The listing of stock options and index futures generated positive abnormal returns for large stocks and for the index while small stocks essentially benefited from the launching of index options. While reducing the variance of blue chips and of the index, their variance's stochasticity increased (decreased) at index options' (futures) listings. Finally, we detect significant stock and index derivatives' price leads which do not however generate arbitrage opportunities.     

The Lead‐Lag Relationship Between Cash and Stock Index Futures in a New Market

This paper investigates the lead‐lag relationship in daily returns and volatilities between price movements of the FTSE/ATHEX‐20 and FTSE/ATHEX Mid‐40 stock index futures and the underlying cash indices in the relatively new futures market of Greece. Empirical results show that there is a bi‐directional relationship between cash and futures prices. However, futures lead the cash index returns, by responding more rapidly to economic events than stock prices. This speed is much higher in the more liquid FTSE/ATHEX‐20 market. Moreover, results indicate that futures volatilities spill information over to the corresponding cash market volatilities in both investigated futures markets, but volatilities in the cash markets have no effect on the volatilities of futures markets. Overall, it seems that new market information is disseminated faster in the futures market compared to the stock market. This implies that the futures markets can be used as price discovery vehicles, providing further evidence that derivatives markets contribute to completing and stabilising capital markets in Greece. A further finding of this study is that futures volume and disequilibrium effects between cash and futures prices are important variables in the explanation of volatilities in cash and futures markets.     

沪深300股指期货与现货市场的非线性信息溢出与价格发现功能研究

采用线性与非线性Granger因果检验、协整检验和VECM模型,研究了沪深300股指期货和现货市场的线性与非线性信息溢出,并检验了期货市场的价格发现功能发挥情况。研究结果显示:线性信息溢出方面,沪深300股指期货市场对现货市场只有线性均值信息溢出,现货市场对期货市场只存在线性方差信息溢出;非线性信息溢出方面,两个市场之间不存在非线性均值信息溢出,不过二者之间存在显著的非线性方差信息溢出;沪深300股指期、现货市场之间存在着长期均衡的关系,不过不同于成熟市场中期货市场在价格发现方面居于主导地位的结论,我国股指现货市场在价格发现方面占主导地位,而期货市场处于从属地位。     

A note on execution costs for stock index futures: Information versus liquidity effects

This paper examines execution costs and the impact of trade size for stock index futures using price-volume transaction data from the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange. Consistent with Subrahmanyam [Rev. Financ. Stud. 4 (1991) 17] we find that effective half spreads in the stock index futures market are small compared to stock markets, and that trades in stock index futures have only a small permanent price impact. This result is important as it helps to better understand the success of equity index products such as index futures and Exchange Traded Funds. We also find that there is no asymmetry in the post-trade price reaction between purchases and sales for stock index futures across various trade sizes. This result is consistent with the conjecture in Chan and Lakonishok [J. Financ. Econ. 33 (1993) 173] that the asymmetry surrounding block trades in stock markets is due to the high cost of short selling and the general reluctance of traders to short sell on stock markets.     

Taxes and the Pricing of Stock Index Futures

Stock index futures prices are generally below the level predicted by simple arbitrage models. This paper suggests that the discrepancy between the actual and predicted prices is caused by taxes. Capital gains and losses are not taxed until they are realized. As Constantinides demonstrates in a recent paper, this gives stockholders a valuable timing option. If the stock price drops, the investor can pass part of the loss on to the government by selling the stock. On the other hand, if the stock price rises, the investor can postpone the tax by not realizing the gain. Since this option is not available to stock index futures traders, the futures prices will be lower than standard no-tax models predict.     

Evidence on the arbitrage efficiency of SPI index futures and options markets

This paper is concerned with arbitrage opportunities in the futures and futures option contracts traded on the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) within a put-call-futures-parity (PCFP) framework. Tick-by-tick transaction price data are employed so that the futures contracts, the call futures options and the put futures options can be matched within a one-minute interval. This paper also takes into account the realistic transaction costs that an arbitrager has to incur, including the implicit bid-ask spread. A thorough ex post analysis is first carried out. The results reveal a significant number of violations of the PCFP in the sample. Ex ante tests are then conducted whereby ex post profitable arbitrage strategies, signified by the matched trios of futures, put and call contracts, are executed with lags up to 3 min. The ex ante results are similar to the ex post results. However, further analysis reveals that the exploitability of the identified arbitrage opportunities is very limited due to the small trading volumes of the futures and options contracts. Thus, we conclude that there is no strong evidence against the arbitrage efficiency between the SPI index futures and options markets in Australia.      

Noise, equity prices, and hedging: A new approach

The existence of noise trading in equity markets has possible economic implications for arbitrage, and asset pricing. In terms of pricing, noise trading can lead to excess volatility which has been shown to influence the value of options and futures. Furthermore, option research shows that modeling volatility leads to improved hedging performance. To this end, we derive a general hedging model for equity index futures in the presence of noise trading. Our analysis shows how the level and dynamics of noise trading should influence a hedger's behavior. Finally, we empirically test our model using the NASDAQ-100 index futures and FTSE 100 index futures over the period of January 1998 to May 2003.     

Liquidity and the Law of One Price: The Case of the Futures-Cash Basis

Deviations from no‐arbitrage relations should be related to market liquidity, because liquidity facilitates arbitrage. At the same time, a wide futures‐cash basis may trigger arbitrage trades and, in turn, affect liquidity. We test these ideas by studying the dynamic relation between stock market liquidity and the index futures basis. There is evidence of two‐way Granger causality between the short‐term absolute basis and liquidity, and liquidity Granger‐causes longer‐term absolute bases. Shocks to the absolute basis predict future stock market liquidity. The evidence suggests that liquidity enhances the efficiency of the futures‐cash pricing system.     

Efficiency in index options markets and trading in stock baskets

Researchers have reported mispricing in index options markets. This study further examines the efficiency of the S&P 500 index options market by testing theoretical pricing relationships implied by no-arbitrage conditions. The effect of a traded stock basket, Standard and Poor’s Depository Receipts (SPDRs), on the link between index and options markets is also examined. We find that pricing efficiency within option markets improves but there is little evidence to support the hypothesis that a stock basket enhances arbitrage across markets. When transactions costs and short sales constraints are included, very few violations of inter-market pricing relationships such as put–call parity are reported. However, violations of within market pricing relationships such as the box spread remain frequent. Extensive analysis suggests that the results are robust.