Additive subordination and its applications in finance

This paper studies additive subordination, which we show is a useful technique for constructing time-inhomogeneous Markov processes with analytical tractability. This technique is a natural generalization of Bochner’s subordination that has proved to be extremely useful in financial modeling. Probabilistically, Bochner’s subordination corresponds to a stochastic time change with respect to an independent Lévy subordinator, while in additive subordination, the Lévy subordinator is replaced by an additive one. We generalize the classical Phillips theorem for Bochner’s subordination to the additive subordination case, based on which we provide Markov and semimartingale characterizations for a rich class of jump-diffusions and pure jump processes obtained from diffusions through additive subordination, and obtain spectral decomposition for them. To illustrate the usefulness of additive subordination, we develop an analytically tractable cross-commodity model for spread option valuation that is able to calibrate the implied volatility surface of each commodity. Moreover, our model can generate implied correlation patterns that are consistent with market observations and economic intuitions.     

Marginal consistent dependence modelling using weak subordination for Brownian motions

We present an approach for modelling dependencies in exponential Lévy market models with arbitrary margins originated from time changed Brownian motions. Using weak subordination of Buchmann et al. [Bernoulli, 2017], we face a new layer of dependencies, superior to traditional approaches based on pathwise subordination, since weakly subordinated processes are not required to have independent components considering multivariate stochastic time changes. We apply a subordinator being able to incorporate any joint or idiosyncratic information arrivals. We emphasize multivariate variance gamma and normal inverse Gaussian processes and state explicit formulae for the Lévy characteristics. Using maximum likelihood, we estimate multivariate variance gamma models on various market data and show that these models are highly preferable to traditional approaches. Consistent values of basket-options under given marginal pricing models are achieved using the Esscher transform, generating a non-flat implied correlation surface.     

A new perspective on post‐earnings‐announcement‐drift: Using a relative drift measure

Prior research finds that there is a delayed reaction to both analyst‐based earnings surprises and random‐walk‐based earnings surprises. Focusing on the market reaction from the post‐announcement window, prior studies show that analyst‐based drift is larger than random walk‐based drift. This finding is counter‐intuitive if we believe large, sophisticated investors tend to trade on analysts’ forecast earnings news and thus react faster and more completely than smaller and less sophisticated investors react to random walk earnings news. In this study, we construct a relative measure of post‐earnings‐announcement drift (PEAD) (i.e., drift as a proportion of total market reaction to earnings news) which we refer to as the ‘drift ratio’, and we provide evidence, consistent with our intuition, that analyst‐based drift ratio is smaller (not greater) than random‐walk‐based drift ratio. We find that this difference is more pronounced in more recent periods and for firms with more sophisticated investors. Our approach to measure the PEAD is more intuitive than that in traditional PEAD literature. Our results thus complement existing research findings by utilizing the drift ratio measure to generate new insights about the drift phenomenon.     

Underreaction to Industry‐Wide Earnings and the Post‐Forecast Revision Drift

We test whether the post‐forecast revision drift is mainly attributable to investors’ underreaction to industry‐wide earnings news conveyed by analysts’ forecast revisions. We find a large drift associated with industry‐wide earnings news but no drift associated with firm‐specific earnings news. Consistent with the functional fixation hypothesis, we provide evidence that the post‐forecast revision drift is driven by investors’ underreaction to the higher persistence of industry‐wide earnings. Although prior research has focused on differential persistence of earnings components stemming from managerial reporting discretion, we provide evidence suggesting that investors do not fully understand the differential earnings persistence attributable to industry fundamentals.     

CMBS Subordination,Ratings Inflation,and Regulatory‐Capital Arbitrage

Using detailed origination and performance data on a comprehensive sample of commercial mortgage‐backed security (CMBS) deals, along with their underlying loans and a set of similarly rated residential mortgage‐backed securities (RMBS), we apply reduced‐form and structural modeling strategies to test for regulatory‐capital arbitrage and ratings inflation in the CMBS market. We find that the spread between CMBS and corporate‐bond yields fell significantly for ratings AA and AAA after a loosening of capital requirements for highly rated CMBS in 2002, whereas no comparable drop occurred for lower rated bonds (which experienced no similar regulatory change). We also find that CMBS rated below AA upgraded to AA or AAA significantly faster than comparable RMBS (for which there was no change in risk‐based capital requirements). We use a structural model to investigate these results in more detail and find that little else changed in the CMBS market over this period except for the rating agencies' persistent reductions in subordination levels between 1997 and late 2007. Indeed, had the 2005 vintage CMBS used the subordination levels from 2000, there would have been no losses to the senior bonds in most CMBS structures.     

Management forecast credibility and underreaction to news

In this paper, we first document evidence of underreaction to management forecast news. We then hypothesize that the credibility of the forecast influences the magnitude of this underreaction. Relying on evidence that more credible forecasts are associated with a larger reaction in the short window around the management forecasts and a smaller post-management forecast drift in returns, we show that the magnitude of the underreaction is smaller for firms that provide more credible forecasts. Our paper contributes to the literature by providing out-of-sample evidence of the drift in returns documented in the post-earnings-announcement drift literature, with the credibility of the news being one explanation for the phenomenon.     

Post–earnings–announcement Drift in the UK

This paper fills a void in the market efficiency literature by testing for the presence of post–earnings–announcement drift in a non–US market. We test for drift using alternative earnings surprise measures based on: (i) the time–series of earnings; (ii) market prices; and (iii) analyst forecasts. Using each of the measures we find evidence of significant post–earnings–announcement drift, robust to alternative controls for risk and market microstructure effects. Using a one–dimensional analysis, the price–based measure of earnings surprise gives the strongest drift, and using a two–dimensional analysis the drift associated with the price–based measure almost subsumes drift associated with the other two measures. Our conclusion is that the UK stock market is inefficient with respect to publicly available corporate earnings information. This evidence provides out–of–sample confirmation of the post–earnings–announcement drift documented in the USA.     

Information Uncertainty and the Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift Anomaly: Insights from REITs

This is the first study to examine the post-earnings-announcement drift anomaly in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) context. The efficient markets hypothesis suggests that unexpected earnings should be fully incorporated into asset prices soon after being publicly announced. We hypothesize that publicly announced earnings signals may be more certain for REITs due to the presence of a parallel (private) asset market, suggesting less drift for REIT stocks. However, we find a large REIT drift component that is both statistically and economically significant. Furthermore, while the initial earnings surprise response is more muted for REITs, we find that the magnitude of the drift is significantly larger for REITs than for ordinary common stocks (NonREITs). Thus, information does not appear to move between the private and public asset markets in such a way as to render REIT earnings signals more certain than NonREIT earnings signals.     

基金业绩如何影响风格漂移和经理离职?——理论与经验分析

本文通过一个两期模型,刻画了基金业绩如何通过影响市场信念,进而影响基金风格漂移和基金公司的解雇行为。若上期基金业绩很好,基金经理就会在乐观的自我能力预期下,完全按照自己的判断选择基金投资风格;若上期业绩一般,基金经理会因为调整成本而不太愿意切换投资风格;而若上期业绩很差导致自我能力预期悲观,基金经理就宁愿模仿上期绩优基金的投资风格。综合起来,基金风格漂移将随上期基金业绩呈现出显著的U型关系。进一步,因为业绩很差的基金经理会采取模仿策略,因此在市场风格发生切换时更有可能发生基金经理解雇事件。此外,本文基于中国开放式基金的季度数据,检验了风格漂移与滞后一期基金业绩之间的关系,经验证据稳健地支持了理论分析的各种结论。     

An analysis of private loan guarantees

Loans guaranteed by private parties other than government agencies experienced an explosive growth in the early 1980s. Althoughprivate financial guarantees are widely used, models for valuing them are not well developed. Using option-pricing theory, in a discrete-time framework we obtain closed-form formulas for evaluating private loan guarantees. We conduct numerical simulations and derive comparative statics for vulnerable loan guarantees under different conditions of debt subordination in conjunction with government default-free guarantees.     

金融担保实践中见索即付条款与传统保证合同比较研究

基于最高人民法院坚持独立担保不适用于我国内国交易的司法立场,我国金融业在借鉴见索即付条款的过程中,将其与我国传统担保体系相结合发展出附见索即付条款保证合同。比较法上存在确认见索即付从属性保证的创新经验,我国也存在确认附见索即付条款保证合同为特殊从属性保证合同的理论可行性及规范基础,因而应将附见索即付条款保证合同定性为一种特殊的从属性保证合同。其特殊性在于,见索即付条款虽无法颠覆保证合同的从属性,但构成了对保证合同从属性的暂时限制。     

投资者关注与分析师评级漂移——来自中国股票市场的证据

本文使用一个直接源自于投资者行为的新颖变量——财经互动社区的超额发帖量——作为投资者关注的代理变量,发现投资者关注可以用来解释分析师评级的漂移现象,即针对分析师评级变动,股价的立即反应随着投资者关注的增加而增强,股价的漂移随着投资者关注的增加而减弱,同时发现投资者关注对股票交易量具有显著正向的作用。     

Comparing the Post–Earnings Announcement Drift for Surprises Calculated from Analyst and Time Series Forecasts

Post–earnings announcement drift is the tendency for a stock's cumulative abnormal returns to drift in the direction of an earnings surprise for several weeks following an earnings announcement. We show that the drift is significantly larger when defining the earnings surprise using analysts' forecasts and actual earnings from I/B/E/S than when using a time series model based on Compustat earnings data. Neither Compustat's policy of restating earnings nor the inclusion of “special items” in reported earnings contribute significantly to the disparity in drift magnitudes. Rather, our results suggest that this disparity is attributable to differences between analyst forecasts and those of time‐series models—or at least to factors correlated with these differences. Further, we document that analyst forecasts lead to return patterns around future earnings announcements that differ from those observed when using time‐series models, suggesting that the two types of surprises may capture somewhat different forms of mispricing.     

基金业绩如何影响风格漂移和经理离职?——理论与经验分析

本文通过一个两期模型,刻画了基金业绩如何通过影响市场信念,进而影响基金风格漂移和基金公司的解雇行为。若上期基金业绩很好,基金经理就会在乐观的自我能力预期下,完全按照自己的判断选择基金投资风格;若上期业绩一般,基金经理会因为调整成本而不太愿意切换投资风格;而若上期业绩很差导致自我能力预期悲观,基金经理就宁愿模仿上期绩优基金的投资风格。综合起来,基金风格漂移将随上期基金业绩呈现出显著的U型关系。进一步,因为业绩很差的基金经理会采取模仿策略,因此在市场风格发生切换时更有可能发生基金经理解雇事件。此外,本文基于中国开放式基金的季度数据,检验了风格漂移与滞后一期基金业绩之间的关系,经验证据稳健地支持了理论分析的各种结论。     

Price Reactions to Dividend Initiations and Omissions: Overreaction or Drift?

This article investigates market reactions to initiations and omissions of cash dividend payments. Consistent with prior literature we find that the magnitude of short-run price reactions to omissions are greater than for initiations. In the year following the announcements, prices continue to drift in the same direction, though the drift following omissions is stronger and more robust. This post-dividend initiation/omission price drift is distinct from and more pronounced than that following earnings surprises. A trading rule employing both samples earns positive returns in 22 out of 25 years. We find little evidence for clientele shifts in either sample.     

Drift dependence of optimal trade execution strategies under transient price impact

We give a complete solution to the problem of minimizing the expected liquidity costs in the presence of a general drift when the underlying market impact model has linear transient price impact with exponential resilience. It turns out that this problem is well-posed only if the drift is absolutely continuous. Optimal strategies often do not exist, and when they do, they depend strongly on the derivative of the drift. Our approach uses elements from singular stochastic control, even though the problem is essentially non-Markovian due to the transience of price impact and the lack in Markovian structure of the underlying price process. As a corollary, we give a complete solution to the minimization of a certain cost-risk criterion in our setting.     

On a continuous time stock price model with regime switching,delay, and threshold

Motivated by the need to describe bear-bull market regime switching in stock prices, we introduce and study a stochastic process in continuous time with two regimes, threshold and delay, given by a stochastic differential equation. When the difference between the regimes is simply given by a different set of real valued parameters for the drift and diffusion coefficients, with changes between regimes depending only on these parameters, we show that if the delay is known there are consistent estimators for the threshold as long we know how to classify a given observation of the process as belonging to one of the two regimes. When the drift and diffusion coefficients are of geometric Brownian motion type we obtain a model with parameters that can be estimated in a satisfactory way, a model that allows differentiating regimes in some of the NYSE 21 stocks analyzed and also, that gives very satisfactory results when compared to the usual Black–Scholes model for pricing call options.     

An efficient algorithm for pricing barrier options in arbitrage-free binomial models with calibrated drift terms

The interrelation between the drift coefficient of price processes on arbitrage-free financial markets and the corresponding transition probabilities induced by a martingale measure is analysed in a discrete setup. As a result, we obtain a flexible setting that encompasses most arbitrage-free binomial models. It is argued that knowledge of the link between drift and transition probabilities may be useful for pricing derivatives such as barrier options. The idea is illustrated in a simple example and later extended to a general numerical procedure. The results indicate that the option values in our fitted drift model converge much faster to closed-form solutions of continuous models for a wider range of contract specifications than those of conventional binomial models.     

Implications of Transaction Costs for the Post–Earnings Announcement Drift

This paper examines the effect of transaction costs on the post–earnings announcement drift (PEAD). Using standard market microstructure features we show that transaction costs constrain the informed trades that are necessary to incorporate earnings information into price. This implies weaker return responses at the time of the earnings announcement and higher subsequent returns drift for firms with higher transaction costs. Consistent with this prediction, we find that earnings response coefficients are lower for firms with higher transaction costs. Using portfolio analyses, we find that the profits of implementing the PEAD trading strategy are significantly reduced by transaction costs. In addition, we show, using a combination of portfolio and regression analyses, that firms with higher transaction costs are the ones that provide the higher abnormal returns for the PEAD strategy. Our results indicate that transaction costs can provide an explanation not only for the persistence but also for the existence of PEAD.