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.     

Cash Flow Volatility, Prices and Price Volatility: An Experimental Study

The value of an asset is equal to the present value of its expected future cash flows. It is affected by the magnitude, timing and riskiness, or volatility, of the cash flows. We hypothesize that if the expected values of two assets?? cash flows are equal, the value of the asset with more volatile cash flows will be lower. Furthermore, we examine the impact of the volatility of cash flows on the volatility of prices. We consider a simple experimental environment where subjects trade in an asset which provides dividends from a known probability distribution. The expected value of the dividends is identical in all experimental treatments. The treatments vary with respect to the volatility of dividends. We find that when dividends are more volatile, transaction prices are lower. We also find that the volatility of prices is lower in the treatment with highly volatile dividends. In addition, as expected, trading volume is lower when cash flows are less volatile.     

The lead–lag relationship between the spot and futures markets in China

Based on daily and one-minute high-frequency returns, this paper examines the lead–lag dependence between the CSI 300 index spot and futures markets from 2010 to 2014. A nonparametric and non-linear method based on the thermal optimal path method is adopted. Empirical results of the daily data indicate that the lead–lag relationship between the two markets is within one day but this relationship is volatile since neither of the two possible situations (the futures leads or lags behind the spot market) takes a dominant place. Our results using the high-frequency data demonstrate that there is a price discovery in the Chinese futures market: the intraday one-minute futures return leads the cash return by 0–5 min regardless of the price trend of the market.     

The relative pricing of European dividend futures and their predictive abilities for index returns

We use dividend futures prices to derive a dividend future discount model. Arbitrage arguments postulate that the sum of discounted dividend futures prices should equal the index price, i.e. the sum of discounted dividends. We analyze whether this relation holds and find that the two valuation approaches lead to a different valuation of expected dividends. These observations indicate that dividend futures and index prices seem to provide the investor with different information on future dividends. We further show that the difference in valuation can be used to forecast index returns and show how an investment strategy can exploit this predictability.     

Futures and realized cash or settle prices for gold,silver, and copper

This article examines the relation between 15-, 30-, 45-, and 60-day gold, silver, and copper futures, and their realized cash or delivery settle prices, for deliveries on the first, middle, and last business day (FD, MD, and LD, respectively) of the delivery month. Samples of futures prices for gold, silver, and copper, and the realized cash or delivery settle prices, based on fixed maturities for a cross-section of contracts are used, because time-series over fixed maturities are unfeasible owing to the restrictive maturity periods in these contracts. This study contrasts with similar studies for forwards, which are not hampered by this problem (e.g., Baillie and Bollerslev in 1989), studies that use contemporaneous time-series of futures and cash prices to obtain optimal hedge ratios (e.g., Ghosh and Clayton in 1996), and studies that examine for parity between different futures prices (e.g., Franses and Kofman in 1991). Near-term gold, closest to delivery silver and all copper futures (the latter only with settle prices at delivery) are good predictors of the future cash price, except for silver and copper deliveries on the last day of delivery months. These results are consistent with previous studies on short-term cash (Ma in 1985) and futures (Ma and Soenen in 1988) parity between gold and silver, and with Gross's (1988) results for copper. The longer-term gold (45- and 60-day) and silver (30-, 45-, and 60-day) futures reject an unbiased expectations hypothesis. This result is consistent with Leistikow (1990) because cash prices respond less than futures prices in these instances.     

Optimal portfolio choice of gold assets in the differential market and differential game structures

Portfolio choices of gold-related assets for market investors and dealers may not only depend on price differences and the inflation rate, but may also react to the market participants’ strategic behavior and risk attitude. This study develops a two-agent stochastic differential game model to solve the portfolio choice problem of the asset allocations of gold spot, futures, and cash for market participators who are exposed to inflation risks. The equilibrium prices of spot and futures driven by the volatility rate and co-variances that reflect various risk sources are also determined. Specifically, regarding the choice of hedging tools, market participators may prefer gold spot to futures for the purpose of hedging inflation risk. By capturing the stylistic facts of differential market and multiple agent structures, the article can develop a more reasonable and practical model to usefully explain the gold portfolio choices and pricing in the gold markets.     

Futures trading volume as a determinant of prices in different momentum phases

Recent studies contend that trading volume has predictive power for ex ante stock prices, particularly small stocks that do not react quickly to macroeconomic information. This study postulates that a significant amount of macro-information that flows on to stock markets is derived from derivative markets. We examine the impact of short-term futures trading volume and prices on cash stock prices using a case study of 15-min data from the Australian stock index futures market which reports actual trading volume. After applying vector error correction modelling (VECM), variance decomposition and impulse functions, we conclude that futures prices provide a short-term information lead to stock prices that dominates trading volume effects. We also observe asymmetric changes in the impact of trading volume between bull and bear price momentum phases and after large trading volume shocks. These results suggest that, in future, studies on trading volume should control for the cross-correlation impact from derivative prices and the differential impact of trading phases.     

Dividends,Dilution, and Taxes: A Signalling Equilibrium

A signalling equilibrium with taxable dividends is identified. In this equilibrium, corporate insiders with more valuable private information optimally distribute larger dividends and receive higher prices for their stock whenever the demand for cash by both their firm and its current stockholders exceeds its internal supply of cash. In equilibrium, many firms distribute dividends and simultaneously issue new stock, while other firms pay no dividends. Because dividends reveal all private information not conveyed by corporate audits, current stockholders capture in equilibrium all economic rents net of dissipative signalling costs. Both the announcement effect and the relationship between dividends and cum-dividend market values are derived explicitly.     

Beyond Basis Basics: Liquidity Demand and Deviations from the Law of One Price

Deviations from the law of one price between futures and spot prices—the futures-cash basis—capture information about liquidity demand for equity market exposure in global markets. We show that the basis comoves with dealer and investor futures positions, is contemporaneously positively correlated with futures and spot market returns, and negatively predicts futures and spot returns. These findings are consistent with the futures-cash basis reflecting liquidity demand that is common to futures and cash equity markets. We find persistent supply-demand imbalances for equity index exposure reflected in the basis, giving rise to an annual premium of 5% to 6%.     

Intraday Lead-Lag Relationships Between the Futures-, Options and Stock Market

In rational, efficiently functioning and complete markets, returns on derivative and underlying securities should be perfectly contemporaneously correlated. Due to market imperfections, one of these markets may reflect information faster. The use of high-frequency data and the choice for a small unit time interval to measure these lead-lag relations comes at the cost of some or many missing observations, causing traditional estimators to either under- or overestimate covariances and correlations. We use a new estimator to estimate lead-lag relationships between the cash AEX index, options and futures. We find that futures returns lead both options and cash index returns by approximately 10 minutes. The relationship between options and the cash market is not completely unidirectional.     

Difference Systems in Financial Futures Markets

Many financial futures markets allow substitutions for the par grade of security at delivery. Substitutes are deliverable at premiums or discounts—“differences” in commodities parlance—to the futures price. The rule that establishes these differences is called a difference system. This paper characterizes financial futures market equilibrium with yield-based difference systems and investigates particular systems in use. The major finding is that currently used difference systems effectively limit deliverable supply in the futures markets and lead to futures prices which understate the cash market price of the par security.     

Alternative settlement methods and Australian individual share futures contracts

Individual share futures contracts have been introduced in Australia since 1994. Initially, the contracts were settled in cash. In 1996, cash settlement was gradually replaced by physical delivery. This study investigates the effects of the settlement method change on Australian individual stock and its futures markets. Specifically, we examine whether return and volatility of each market, correlation between the two markets, basis behavior, and hedging performance of futures markets differ across cash settlement period and physical delivery period. We find that, after the switch from cash settlement to physical delivery, the futures market, the spot market, and the basis all become more volatile. However, each individual share futures contract becomes a more effective hedging instrument. The improvement in hedging effectiveness is particularly impressive for the most recently established individual share futures contracts.     

INTRADAY MARKET BEHAVIOR AND THE EXTENT OF FEEDBACK BETWEEN S&P 500 FUTURES PRICES AND THE S&P 500 INDEX

In this study we empirically examine the intraday lead/lag relation between S&P 500 futures prices and the S&P 500 index, and whether daily market characteristics are associated with changes in the relation. We estimate daily Geweke measures of feedback and regress time series of these measures on daily price volatility and volume characteristics. Results indicate that the contemporaneous price relation is substantive and that measures of contemporaneous feedback are positively associated with the daily range of the futures price. The primary implication is that the relation between cash and futures prices becomes stronger as futures price volatility increases. As volatility increases, information is being impounded at a faster rate so that futures and equity markets operate more closely as one market. Large futures price moves, by themselves, are not responsible for breakdowns in the stock-futures price relation.     

The role of cross-listing,foreign ownership and state ownership in dividend policy in an emerging market

In this paper, we investigate if dividend policy is influenced by ownership type. Within the dividend literature, dividends have a signaling role regarding agency costs, such that dividends may diminish insider conflicts (reduce free cash flow) or may be used to extract cash from firms (tunneling effect) – which could be predominant in emerging markets. We expect firms with foreign ownership and those that are listed in overseas markets to have different dividend policies and practices than those that are not, and firms with more state ownership and less individual ownership to be more likely to pay cash dividends and less likely to pay stock dividends. Using firms from an emerging economy (China), we examine whether these effects exist in corporate dividend policy and practice. We find that both foreign ownership and cross-listing have significant negative effects on cash dividends, consistent with the signaling effect and the notion of reduced tunneling activities for firms with the ability to raise capital from outside of China. Consistent with the tunneling effect, we find that firms with higher state ownership tend to pay higher cash dividends and lower stock dividends, while the opposite is true for public (individual) ownership. Further analysis shows that foreign ownership mediates the effect of state ownership on dividend policy. Our results have significant implications for researchers, investors, policy makers and regulators in emerging 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。     

市场行情影响投资者的股利偏好吗?

基于2005-2017年A股上市公司的数据,研究了在不同的市场行情中,投资者对于股利政策的偏好差别。研究发现：对于现金股利而言,在上涨和下跌的市场行情中,投资者更偏好不发放现金股利的上市公司;在平稳行情中,投资者更偏好发放现金股利的上市公司。对于股票股利而言,在上涨行情中,投资者更偏好发放股票股利的上市公司;在下跌行情中,投资者更偏好不发放股票股利的上市公司;在平稳行情中,投资者对于是否发放股票股利没有显著的偏好差异。在上涨和下跌的市场行情中,超能力派现和高送转不会改变投资者的偏好;在平稳行情中,只有正常派现和正常送转才能赢得投资者的青睐,超能力派现行为无益于上市公司,高送转还会损害公司价值。     

Information,interest rates,and the volatility of asset prices

The volatility of an asset price is modelled as a function of the volatility of an information signal, real interest rates and inflation expectations. Volatility depends on the duration of cash flows, and the degree to which cash flows are indexed to real rates and inflation. The model is applied to determine asset betas, the volatility of the futures prices of assets and the volatility of equity prices.     

A Model of Financialization of Commodities

We analyze how institutional investors entering commodity futures markets, referred to as the financialization of commodities, affect commodity prices. Institutional investors care about their performance relative to a commodity index. We find that all commodity futures prices, volatilities, and correlations go up with financialization, but more so for index futures than for nonindex futures. The equity‐commodity correlations also increase. We demonstrate how financial markets transmit shocks not only to futures prices but also to commodity spot prices and inventories. Spot prices go up with financialization, and shocks to any index commodity spill over to all storable commodity prices.     

A new methodology for studying intraday dynamics of Nikkei index futures using Markov chains

The empirical study of intraday patterns of stock trading volatilities and bid–ask spreads in the literature depends on assumptions of specific price generating process and may therefore not be robust to distributional assumptions. By creating discrete states that conform more naturally to the way prices are actually quoted in the derivatives and assets markets, we employ a new methodology of Markov chains for studying the intraday dynamics of derivative prices. We apply the method to study the intraday behavior of the Nikkei index futures prices, trading volumes, and spreads. We find some interesting results such as higher probabilities of transitions between larger volatilities at the opening and closing times. The volatility at lunch break is strikingly low. Contrary to most of the literature, the Nikkei intraday bid–ask spread does not show a U-shaped pattern. We offer some explanations.     

Stochastic dividend yields and derivatives pricing in complete markets

When an underlying yields a stochastic dividend yield, derivatives with linear payoff at their maturities that are written on this underlying have the following properties: (i) they have a unique price only if markets are complete; (ii) the dynamic strategies that replicate these contingent claims contain hedging components against the state variables in the economy; (iii) the prices of these derivatives will depend upon the dynamics of the market prices of risk even when markets are complete. Within an affine framework, we explicitly price forward and futures contracts with stochastic dividends. We also show that the quantitative impact of assuming that dividends are deterministic when they are actually stochastic is significant. JEL Classification G12 · G13