Time-varying relationship of news sentiment,implied volatility and stock returns

I examine the relationship between aggregate news sentiment, S&P 500 index (SPX) returns, and changes in the implied volatility index (VIX). I find a significant negative contemporaneous relationship between changes in VIX and both news sentiment and stock returns. This relationship is asymmetric whereby changes in VIX are larger following negative news and/or stock market declines. Vector autoregression (VAR) analysis of the dynamics and cross-dependencies between variables reveals a strong positive relationship between previous and current period changes in implied volatility and stock returns, while current period and lagged news sentiment has a significant positive (negative) relationship with stock returns (changes in VIX). I develop a simple trading strategy whereby high (low) levels of implied volatility signal attractive opportunities to take short (long) positions in the underlying index, while extremely negative (positive) news sentiment signals opportunities to enter short (long) index positions. The investor fear gauge (VIX) appears to perform better than news sentiment measures in forecasting future returns.     

Dynamic causality between the U.S. stock market,the Chinese stock market and the global gold market: implications for individual investors’ diversification strategies

This paper proposes a generalization of the prior VAR and EGARCH model to explore the linkage between returns and volatility transmissions in the U.S. stock market, the Chinese stock market, and the global gold market from 10 July 1996 to 20 July 2018. We found that past returns of the U.S. stock market can predict the current returns of the other two markets, and that significant reciprocal volatility transmission existed within and across all three markets. We further implemented average out-of-sample (OOS) forecasting to show that a risk-adjusted portfolio, such as mean-variance with sample estimator, does not outperform an equal-weighted portfolio. This provides insights for individual investors and helps to explain the ongoing disagreement in the portfolio literature concerning the effectiveness of risk-adjusted portfolios and equal-weighted portfolios when the number of assets is small.     

Co-movement of the Chinese and U.S. aggregate stock returns

This article studies the co-movement of the levels, as well as of the volatilities, of the Chinese and U.S. aggregate stock returns in 1995–2014, focusing on the impact of the liberalization of Chinese stock market from 2005. The volatilities of the two returns appear to have started to co-move in 2006. To understand the co-movement, we use the GARCH BEKK method. The result suggests that before 2006, the evolution of the U.S. returns had a tendency to affect the Chinese returns in level and volatility. However, after 2006, the two returns affected each other in a more complex way.     

Where does return and volatility come from? The case of Asian ETFs

We analyze return and volatility of Asian iShares traded in the U.S. The difference in trading schedules between the U.S. and Asia offers a unique market setting that allows us to distinguish various return and volatility sources. We find Asian ETFs have higher overnight volatility than daytime volatility, explained by public information released during each local market's trading session. Local Asian markets also play an important role in determining each Asian ETF return. Nonetheless, returns for these funds are highly correlated with U.S. markets, indicative of the effects of investor sentiment and location of trade. Finally, returns in the U.S. market Granger-cause returns in all six Asian markets are analyzed.     

中美股市杠杆效应与波动溢出效应——基于GARCH模型的实证分析

本文基于极大似然函数值准则和赤池信息准则,从众多非对称GARCH模型中选择最优模型来研究中美股市杠杆效应和波动溢出效应。结果表明:沪市和深市都表现出显著的杠杆效应,与美国股市相比沪市和深市杠杆效应较弱;沪市和深市之间存在显著的双向波动溢出效应,且沪市对深市的波动溢出效应更显著;美国股市与中国股市之间不存在显著的波动溢出效应。     

Politics and the stock market: Evidence from Germany

We analyze the interaction of stock market movements and politics in Germany. Evidence from popularity functions and VAR-based evidence suggests that stock market returns have affected the popularity of German governments. We only find weak evidence that the political process has had an impact on the stock market. In contrast to empirical evidence for the U.S., we do not find that German stock market returns tend to be higher during left-wing than during right-wing governments. Also in contrast to results for the U.S., we find no evidence for an election cycle in German stock market returns.     

Pairs trading: does volatility timing matter?

Pairs trading is a dollar-neutral trading strategy. Using the components of two major stock indices, the S&P 500 and the Nikkei 225, this article deals with the performance of a pairs trading system based on various pairs selection methods (distance, stationarity, cointegration) over a 10-year period. On both markets, using a classical framework, cointegration appears superior and effective. On the U.S. market and also in Japan to a lower extent, pairs trading strategies exhibited an impressive performance during the 2008 financial crisis. Bearish periods are associated with a high level of the VIX index: the ‘investor fear gauge’. Using a modified trading system, this article examines the link between pairs trading performance and volatility/VIX timing. It is shown that for the best selection technique (cointegration), timing volatility has no economic value in a pairs trading context.     

Causal effects of the United States and Japan on Pacific-Rim stock markets: nonparametric quantile causality approach

This article adopts a nonparametric quantile causality approach to examine the causal effects of the U.S. and Japan stock markets on the stock markets of the Pacific-Rim region. This approach allows us to detect not only nonlinear causalities in conditional return (mean) and conditional volatility (variance) but also the asymmetries of causalities under extreme market conditions (bullish vs. bearish states). Our results provide significant evidence of causality in return and volatility at different points of the conditional distributions of returns, with the greater effects from the U.S. than from Japan. Asymmetric quantile causality patterns are particularly pronounced in the case of Japan.     

The importance of fear: investor sentiment and stock market returns

The presence of investor sentiment pushes asset prices away from the equilibrium level justified by underlying fundamentals. While sentiment is not directly observable, identifying appropriate proxies and, quantifying the impact of sentiment on asset prices is an important topic. Asset prices that do not appropriately reflect fundamental values may result in inefficient allocation of capital – impacting portfolio allocation decisions and the cost of capital. Utilizing a number of sentiment proxies, over the period 1990–2015, we demonstrate a strong relationship between investor sentiment and stock returns that is consistent with theoretical explanations of sentiment. We determine that implied volatility index (VIX) is the preferred measure of sentiment in terms of improving model fit and adding explanatory power. Causality tests suggest that investor fear (VIX) drives returns across firm-size and value, and also across industry. We also illustrate that firms that are more subjective to value, or face limits to arbitrage, such as small-cap stocks, or those in the business equipment (technology) or telecoms industry, are most responsive to changes investor sentiment. Finally, we demonstrate that sentiment has a greater influence on market returns during recession, when sentiment is at its lowest ebb, and this is particularly true for those stocks most susceptible to speculative demand.     

Does international oil volatility have directional predictability for stock returns? Evidence from BRICS countries based on cross-quantilogram analysis

While numerous studies have investigated the relationship between oil volatility and stock returns, it is surprising that little research has examined the quantile dependence and directional predictability from oil volatility to stock returns in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries. We address this issue by using the cross-quantilogram model proposed by Han et al. (2016). The empirical results show that, overall, oil volatility has a directional predictability for the stock returns in BRICS countries. When the oil volatility is in a low quantile (lower than its 0.1 quantiles), it is less likely to show either a large loss or a large gain in the stock market. In contrast, there is an increased likelihood of either large loss or a large gain in the stock market when the oil volatility is in a high quantile (higher than its 0.9 quantiles). The directional predictability from the oil volatility to stock returns depends on the net position of oil imports and exports of these BRICS countries in the oil market. The net oil exporters (Russia and Brazil) are less likely to have large gains and large losses in the stock market than are the net oil importers (India, China, and South Africa) when the oil volatility is in a low quantile. The net oil exporters are more likely to have large gains and large losses than are the net oil importers when the oil volatility is in a high quantile. The results are robust to change in the variable of oil volatility and the sample interval.     

Industry-level determinants of the linkage between credit and stock markets

This paper examines the relationship between US credit default swaps (CDS) and stock returns on an industry-wide basis across a number of investment horizons, with particular focus on the major determinants of such a relationship. Wavelet analysis is first applied to extract the CDS–stock wavelet correlation for each US industry. Then, Bayesian Model Averaging is employed to identify the key driving factors of the industry CDS–stock wavelet correlations at short- and long-term horizons. The empirical results indicate that the wavelet correlations between the industry CDS and stock returns are primarily negative over time and across time scales. Moreover, the CDS–stock correlation at longer horizons exhibits a much more stable pattern than its counterpart at shorter time frames. The results also demonstrate that the volatility of US Treasury and stock markets, as measured by the MOVE and VIX indices, respectively, the volatility of volatility, as captured by the VVIX index, and US economic policy uncertainty, as measured by the EPU index, are the most robust determinants of the correlation between CDS and stock returns at shorter and longer horizons for most US industries. In contrast, the Fama–French systematic equity factors exhibit a practically negligible explanatory power on the CDS–stock link.     

Volatility risk premium implications of GARCH option pricing models

In this paper we explore important implications of capturing volatility risk premium (VRP) within a parametric GARCH setting. We study the transmission mechanism of shocks from returns to risk-neutral volatility by providing an examination of the news-impact curves and impulse–response functions of risk-neutral volatility, in order to better understand how option prices respond to return innovations. We report a value of − 3% for the magnitude of the average VRP and we recover the empirical densities under physical and risk-neutral measures. Allowing for VRP is crucial for adding flexibility to the shape of the two distributions. In our estimation procedure, we adopt a MLE approach that incorporates both physical return and risk-neutral VIX dynamics. By introducing volatility - instead of variance - innovations in the joint likelihood function and by allowing for contemporaneous correlation between innovations in returns and the VIX we show that we may critically reduce the bias and improve the efficiency of the joint maximum likelihood estimator, especially for the parameters of the volatility process. Modeling returns and the VIX as a bi-variate normal permits identification of a contemporaneous correlation coefficient of approximately − 30% between returns and risk-neutral volatility.     

THE IMPACT OF OIL PRICE SHOCKS ON THE U.S. STOCK MARKET*

It is shown that the reaction of U.S. real stock returns to an oil price shock differs greatly depending on whether the change in the price of oil is driven by demand or supply shocks in the oil market. The demand and supply shocks driving the global crude oil market jointly account for 22% of the long‐run variation in U.S. real stock returns. The responses of industry‐specific U.S. stock returns to demand and supply shocks in the crude oil market are consistent with accounts of the transmission of oil price shocks that emphasize the reduction in domestic final demand.     

Economic policy uncertainty,financial markets and probability of US recessions

We use probit recession forecasting models to assess the ability of economic policy uncertainty indexes developed by Baker et al. (2013) to predict future US recessions. The model specifications include policy indexes on their own, and in combination with financial variables, such as interest rate spreads, stock returns and stock market volatility. Both in-sample and out-of-sample analysis suggests that the policy uncertainty indexes are statistically and economically significant in forecasting recessions at the horizons beyond five quarters. The index based on newspaper reports emerges as the best predictor, outperforming the term spread at the longer forecast horizons.     

Determinants of stock market comovements among US and emerging economies during the US financial crisis

By analyzing the dynamic conditional correlations (DCC) of the daily stock returns of 10 emerging economies in comparison with those of the US for the period of 2006–2010, we find different patterns of crisis spillover among 10 emerging economies. While a group of countries has three distinctive phases of crisis spillover (contagion, herding, and post-crisis adjustment), other groups show different phases of crisis spillover. It is also shown that increases in CDS spread and TED spread decrease conditional correlations while increases in foreign institutional investment, exchange market volatility, and the VIX index of the S&P 500 increase conditional correlations.     

On the Effects of Asset Purchase Programs on Emerging Stock Markets

ABSTRACT

It is well documented that there has been a relationship between stock markets and unconventional monetary policies. However, most research concentrates on developed economies and analyzes the effects of shocks from such polices on stock prices. This paper is different from this research in that we investigate the impact of surprises from the Fed’s and the ECB’s announcements on the stock returns and volatility in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using GARCH models. We find that a positive surprise associated with a fall in the U.S. Treasury yield causes an increase in ADX returns. We show significant effects of the ECB’s shocks on price returns. In particular, announcement that induces a decline in yield spreads in Italian sovereign bonds leads to higher stock prices. We also document a significant impact of surprises both by the Fed and ECB on volatility. However, the estimates are mixed. We note that volatility went down in response to the ECB’s policies, while they increased after the Fed’s asset purchases. Finally, when we distinguish surprises by their sign, the GJR-GARCH model estimates indicate that the effect on the volatility which is, perhaps surprisingly, symmetric for both types of news.     

Asset prices and economic fluctuations: The implications of stochastic volatility

This paper investigates whether the multi-factor stochastic volatility of stock returns is related to economic fluctuations and affects asset prices. We address these issues in a dynamic Fama-French three-factor volatility model framework. Consistent with the ICAPM with stochastic volatility (Campbell et al., 2017), we find that the conditional volatility of the size and value factors is significantly related to economic uncertainty. These volatilities are also significant pricing factors. The out-of-sample forecasting analysis further reveals that the conditional volatility can predict stock returns and deliver economic gain in asset allocation. Our analysis sharpens the understanding on the link between the stock market and economic fundamentals.     

Do macroeconomic variables have regime-dependent effects on stock return dynamics? Evidence from the Markov regime switching model

The predictability of stock return dynamics is a topic discussed most frequently in empirical studies; however, no unanimous conclusion has yet been reached due to the ignorance of structural changes in stock price dynamics. This study applies various regime switching GJR-GARCH models to analyze the effects of macroeconomic variables (interest rate, dividend yield, and default premium) on stock return movements (including conditional mean, conditional variance, and transition probabilities) in the U.S. stock market, so as to clearly compare the predictive validity of stable and volatile states, as well as compare the in-sample and out-of-sample portfolio performance of regime switching models. The empirical results show that macro factors can affect the stock return dynamics through two different channels, and that the magnitude of their influences on returns and volatility is not constant. The effects of the three economic variables on returns are not time-invariant, but are closely related to stock market fluctuations, and the strength of predictability in a volatile regime is far greater than that in a stable regime. It is found that interest rate and dividend yield seem to play an important role in predicting conditional variance, and out-of-sample performance is largely eroded when the effects of these two factors on volatility are ignored. In addition, the three macro factors do not play any role in predicting transition probabilities.     

中国封闭式基金价格报酬过度波动的经验分析

本文研究了中国封闭式基金价格报酬与净资产报酬的数据特征及其影响关系 ,主要的结果是 :( 1 )中国封闭式基金的价格报酬相对于基金的净资产报酬一方面存在过度波动 ,另一方面又存在反映不足 ;( 2 )通过检验表明 ,投资者情绪风险对价格报酬过度波动具有显著的影响 ,而Fama的三因素风险因子对价格报酬的过度波动几乎没有解释力 ;( 3 )封闭基金价格报酬的过度波动表明 :由于投资者行为使基金股票价格相对于基金净值存在额外的系统风险 ,封闭式基金折价正是对这种系统风险的一种补偿。     

美国货币政策对中国股票市场溢出效应的实证研究

本文认为:美国货币政策对我国股票市场真实回报具有显著的溢出效应,即扩张性的货币政策使我国股票市场真实回报下降;在短期,美国货币政策冲击对我国股票市场真实回报波动贡献大,而在中长期美国的通胀、产出冲击贡献大;美国货币政策溢出效应经由美国股票市场价格示范效应传递的机制不显著。