The Influence of Information Arrival on Market Microstructure: Evidence from Three Related Markets

This study examines the influence of information arrival on market microstructure for the MMI, NYSE, and S&P 500 stock index futures markets, with special emphasis on the effects of opening and closing of trading and expiration of contracts on price movements and trading activities. The results of the examination show that although the opening of the (MMI) futures market is associated with higher volatility, it is when the spot market opens that volatility reaches its highest level. Similarly, the closing of the futures markets, though more volatile, is not as volatile as the closing of the spot markets. Trading patterns, on the other hand, are distinct from volatility. For MMI, trading declines consistently after the close of the spot market. In contrast, the NYSE and S&P 500 continue to trade and reach a peak at the close of the futures markets. Expiration effects are evidenced by the increase in volatility and trading near the closing of the MMI and the spillover to the NYSE and S&P 500. In sharp contrast, the expirations of the NYSE and S&P 500 are only assooiated with decrease in trading, suggesting that efforts to dampen volatility by changing expiration days from Friday to Thursday and shifting settlement price from Friday close to Friday open, have been successful.     

Intraday Price Formation in U.S. Equity Index Markets

The market for U.S. equity indexes presently comprises floor‐traded index futures contracts, exchange‐traded funds (ETFs), electronically traded, small‐denomination futures contracts (E‐minis), and sector ETFs that decompose the S&P 500 index into component industry portfolios. This paper empirically investigates price discovery in this environment. For the S&P 500 and Nasdaq‐100 indexes, most of the price discovery occurs in the E‐mini market. For the S&P 400 MidCap index, price discovery is shared between the regular futures contract and the ETF. The S&P 500 ETF contributes markedly to price discovery in the sector ETFs, but there are only minor effects in the reverse direction.     

Risk-Adjusted Day-of-the-Week, Day-of-the-Month, and Month-of-the-Year Effects on Stock Indexes and Stock Index Futures

This study uses risk-adjusted returns based on the Sharpe Performance Measure to evaluate the presence of three anomalies in two stock index futures, the futures of a smaller firm synthetic index, and their respective underlying spot indexes. The three anomalies are the day-of-the-week, the month-of-the-year, and the day-of-the-month effects. Using the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test, we find more evidence of day-of-the-week and day-of-the-month effects in futures index price behavior than in their underlying spot indexes. The January effect is found to be more pronounced for spot indexes than for stock index futures contracts. It is also more pronounced in the smaller firm synthetic index. Our results tend to disagree with efficient market proponents.     

限制交易政策如何影响期现关系?——对股指期货价格发现功能的实证检验

本文利用2015年中国股市大幅下跌期间,对股指期货严格限制交易政策这一独特事件前后的高频数据,研究限制交易政策对股指期货与股票市场价格引导关系的影响。利用I-S模型和分位数回归方法的实证结果表明:限制交易政策实施前,股指期货对股票市场的价格影响更强,尤其表现在价格急剧下跌时期;限制交易政策显著增加了期货市场交易成本,从而降低了期货市场的信息份额,削弱了其对股票市场的价格影响,并且改变了期货价格对现货价格“助跌强于助涨”的影响模式,增强了股指期货在价格上涨时对股票市场的影响。研究结果一方面直接量化了期货交易成本变动对其价格发现功能的负面影响,另一方面也从价格引导关系的视角提供了股市危机时期股指期货限制交易政策监管效果的实证证据。     

When noise trading fades,volatility rises

We hypothesize and test an inverse relation between liquidity and price volatility derived from microstructure theory. Two important facets of liquidity trading are examined: volume and noisiness. As represented by the expected turnover rate (volume) and realized average commission cost per share (noisiness) of NYSE equity trading, both facets are found negatively associated with the ex post and ex ante return volatilities of the NYSE stock portfolios and the NYSE composite index futures. Furthermore, the inverse association between noisiness and volatility is amplified in times of market crisis. The negative noisiness–volatility relation is also supported by our analysis on the effects of trade size on price volatility. The overall results demonstrate that volatility increases as noise trading declines.     

The innovations of e-mini contracts and futures price volatility components: The empirical investigation of S&P 500 stock index futures

The effect of the initiation of e-mini stock index futures (ESIFs) on the volatility components of S&P 500 stock index futures is herein investigated. The study decomposes S&P 500 stock index-related observed volatilities into unobserved fundamental volatility and transitory noise and utilizes the decomposition to test two hypotheses: the “clientele factor hypothesis” and the “information adjustment hypothesis”. The first hypothesis proposes that the ESIFs attract more noisy traders who prefer trading the friendly-size futures contracts. The second one proposes that the innovations of ESIFs improve the information flow of the futures markets. Using a stochastic volatility model, the empirical results are consistent with both of our proposed hypotheses.     

股指期货市场操纵与价格发现功能的关系研究

股指期货市场操纵会影响股指期货市场的价格发现功能,同样地,股指期货市场的价格发现功能也会影响股指期货市场的操纵行为。本文在理论探讨的基础上,利用股指期货主力合约及对应的沪深300指数高频数据对市场操纵行为进行实证分析。研究结果表明,当操纵嫌疑只存在于期货市场时,股指期货市场的价格发现功能将会减弱;当操纵嫌疑存在于期货、现货两个市场时,股指期货市场的价格发现功能相对会增强。而且,当股指期货市场价格发现功能较强时,市场操纵的难度和成本都将下降。当前中国股指期货市场的操纵行为可能主要局限于某些个别的、离散的交易日内,系统地通过操纵现货指数来操纵期货市场的可能性较低。     

股指期货市场金融加速器效应的实证分析

金融加速器理论认为,由于存在着摩擦成本,金融市场的波动可能是非对称的,体现为相对于扩张金融市场状态,紧缩金融市场状态下冲击的波动更加剧烈,由此产生加速效应。本文采用向量自回归模型系列对次贷危机期间S&P500股指期货市场波动状态进行了计量检验,验证了其非对称波动的金融加速器效应,揭示了股指期货市场与股票现货市场之间的风险衍生机制,旨在为我国沪深300指数期货交易的风险防范提供借鉴。     

基于高频数据的股指期货与现货市场波动溢出和信息传导研究

本文利用沪深300指数和当月股指期货连续合约的高频数据,采用非参数方法估计日度股票指数和股指期货的整体波动、连续性波动和跳跃,发现两个市场波动成分存在双向的格兰杰因果关系,但是期货市场的跳跃并不会影响后续股票市场的跳跃。此外,已实现相关系数在股指期货上市初期表现出了较大的变动,整体表现出了较强的联动趋势。最后,日内高频价格之间存在稳定的协整关系,两个市场存在双向的信息传导,股指期货的价格发现功能得到发挥。     

中国股指期货合约乘数水平的研究

中国沪深500股指期货已经推出，其合约设计的合理与适用性则需要通过市场的实践来验证，在这其中，对合约乘数水平的检验至关重要，因为它与标的指数点住共同构成了合约的价值，进而直接影响到股指期货市场的稳定性。本文采用中国股指期贷合约推出后的真实交易数据、根据期货交易的一种风险控制理论“2N止损法”来测算投资者账户资产净值与头寸规模的绝对值，以此推导出现行合约乘数水平对投资者价格风险的影响程度，得出当前500元的合约乘数水平偏高的结论；并在此基础上，通过对中国股指期货市场的数据统计分析来检验以上结论，论证当前合约乘数水平的适用性，最后建议适当调整中国沪深500股指期货合约乘数的水平或尽快推出相应的小型合约。     

TIME‐VARYING VOLATILITY IN CANADIAN AND U.S. STOCK INDEX AND INDEX FUTURES MARKETS: A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS

We use a multivariate generalized autoregressive heteroskedasticity model (M‐GARCH) to examine three stock indexes and their associated futures prices: the New York Stock Exchange Composite, S&P 500, and Toronto 35. The North American context is significant because markets in Canada and the United States share similar structures and regulatory environments. Our model allows examination of dependence in volatility as it captures time variation in volatility and cross‐market influences. Estimated time variation in volatility is significant, and the volatilities are highly positively correlated. Yet, we find that the correlation in North American index and futures markets has declined over time.     

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.     

On the Role of Futures Trading in Spot Market Fluctuations: Perpetrator of Volatility or Victim of Regret?

We examine the role of index futures trading in spot market volatility. We use the exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) approach to measure volatility, analyze causality and feedback relations between volatilities in the spot and futures markets, and test various hypotheses in the context of a multivariate model that incorporates other macrostate variables. Our empirical results suggest index futures trading may not be blamed for the observed volatility in the spot market. Rather, we find stronger and more consistent support for the alternative posture that volatility in the futures market is an outgrowth of a turbulent cash market. We use the regret (cognitive dissonance) theory to explain our results.     

基于波动效应与价格发现的期指仿真交易研究

沪深300股指期货仿真交易的推出，对我国现货市场的影响如何以及这种影响是否有利于现货效率的改进。首次采用修正的GARCH模型和向量误差修正模型（VEC）将股指期货推出后现货市场波动性的变化和股指期货与现货市场的价格发现功能结合起来进行对比研究。结果表明，期指仿真交易的推出对于现货市场效率的改进确实存在正面的影响。其引入在短期内加大了现货市场的波动，但这一波动正是市场信息流动加速的反映，因而提高了市场信息的传递效率。同时期货价格领先于现货价格，存在由期货市场到现货市场长期的单向因果关系，说明期货价格具有引导现货价格向均衡方向调整的功能，从而在经验上支持了股指期货市场的开放政策。     

Stock market closure and intraday stock index futures market volatility: “contagion”, bid–ask bias or both?

Chang et al. [Journal of Business 68 (1) (1995) 61] examine the impact of the closure of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on S&P500 stock index futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. They document a decline in futures market volatility immediately after the close of the NYSE, and an increase 15 minutes later when the futures market closes. They attribute this to contagion–i.e. a decline in information transfer from equities to futures markets following the closure of the underlying market. This paper examines the impact of the extension of trading hours in Hang Seng Index futures traded on the Hong Kong Futures Exchange on the 20 November, 1998 to 15 minutes after the close of the underlying market (the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong). Using the unique natural experiment provided by this change, a pattern similar to US markets is documented for the Hang Seng Index Futures following the change in trading hours. This provides strong evidence that the intraday pattern in volatility is caused by market closure. Unlike US futures exchanges, price reporters on the floor of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange collect quote data in addition to trade data. This data facilitates a test of another plausible microstructure explanation for the observed behaviour–bid–ask bounce associated with trading activity. This paper provides evidence that bid–ask bounce also explains part of the observed intraday behaviour in price volatility.     

我国股指期货与现货市场信息传递与波动溢出关系研究

股指期货与现货市场关系是监管者关注的重点问题。本文采用我国股指期货上市以来1分钟级高频数据,应用向量误差修正模型、方差分解、多元T-GARCH等,考察期现两市信息传递、波动溢出效应的影响。实证结果表明,尽管股指期货和股票市场之间短期内存在相互引导关系,但股票市场价格变动更多来自于自身影响,起主导作用,而且两市长期均衡收敛也是以股票市场占主导地位;两市存在显著的双向波动溢出,期货市场的波动溢出效应强于股票市场的波动溢出效应;两市场存在明显的非对称效应,期货市场对坏消息更为敏感,而现货市场对好消息更为敏感。     

Price discovery and volatility spillovers in index futures markets: Some evidence from Mexico

This paper investigates the hypotheses that the recently established Mexican stock index futures market effectively serves the price discovery function, and that the introduction of futures trading has provoked volatility in the underlying spot market. We test both hypotheses simultaneously with daily data from Mexico in the context of a modified EGARCH model that also incorporates possible cointegration between the futures and spot markets. The evidence supports both hypotheses, suggesting that the futures market in Mexico is a useful price discovery vehicle, although futures trading has also been a source of instability for the spot market. Several managerial implications are derived and discussed.     

Does Net Buying Pressure Affect the Shape of Implied Volatility Functions?

This paper examines the relation between net buying pressure and the shape of the implied volatility function (IVF) for index and individual stock options. We find that changes in implied volatility are directly related to net buying pressure from public order flow. We also find that changes in implied volatility of S&P 500 options are most strongly affected by buying pressure for index puts, while changes in implied volatility of stock options are dominated by call option demand. Simulated delta‐neutral option‐writing trading strategies generate abnormal returns that match the deviations of the IVFs above realized historical return volatilities.     

Transmission of Stock Returns and Volatility between the U.S. and Japan: Evidence from the Stock Index Futures Markets

In this paper, we examine the nature of transmission of stock returns and volatility between the U.S. and Japanese stock markets using futures prices on the S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 stock indexes. We use stock index futures prices to mitigate the stale quote problem found in the spot index prices and to obtain more robust results. By employing a two-step GARCH approach, we find that there are unidirectional contemporaneous return and volatility spillovers from the U.S. to Japan. Furthermore, the U.S.'s influence on Japan in returns is approximately four times as large as the other way around. Finally, our results show no significant lagged spillover effects in both returns and volatility from the Osaka market to the Chicago market, while a significant lagged volatility spillover is observed from the U.S. to Japan. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The role of gold futures in mitigating the impact of economic uncertainty on spot prices: Evidence from China

This paper studies the co-integration relationship and volatility spillover effect between China's gold futures and spot prices through the VECM-BEKK-GARCH model. Then, MSGARCH and DCCE-GARCH are applied to study the relationship among China's gold futures market, spot market price volatility and the stabilization effect in uncertain economic environments. This paper enriches the current research, providing gold market participants with hints to address economic uncertainty. The empirical results show that China's gold futures market has a weak stabilization effect on spot price volatility. In scenarios with uncertain economic information and uncertain macroeconomic changes, the correlation between gold futures and spot price volatility is reduced in China, and the role of gold futures in stabilizing the spot price weakens. Furthermore, with economic uncertainty, the fluctuation range of the gold futures price is greater than that of the spot price, with a tendency of more frequent fluctuations. This also means that the effectiveness of the futures market in regulating the spot price will be reduced, and gold market regulators need to stabilize the market through alternative methods to futures.