The term structure of S&P 100 model-free volatilities

We develop an improved method to obtain the model-free volatility more accurately despite the limitations of a finite number of options and large strike price intervals. Our method computes the model-free volatility from European-style S&P 100 index options over a horizon of up to 450 days, the first time that this has been attempted, as far as we are aware. With the estimated daily term structure over the long horizon, we find that (i) changes in model-free volatilities are asymmetrically more positively impacted by a decrease in the index level than negatively impacted by an increase in the index level; (ii) the negative relationship between the daily change in model-free volatility and the daily change in index level is stronger in the near term than in the far term; and (iii) the slope of the term structure is positively associated with the index level, having a tendency to display a negative slope during bear markets and a positive slope during bull markets. These significant results have important implications for pricing and hedging index derivatives and portfolios.     

Option implied volatilities and the cost of issuing equity

The structure of a firm-commitment Seasoned Equity Offering (SEO) resembles a put-option underwritten by an investment bank syndicate (Smith, 1977). Employing implied volatilities from issuers’ stock options as a direct forward-looking measure, this paper examines the impact of expected price risk around SEO issue dates on the direct cost of issuing equity. Using a comprehensive sample of 1208 SEOs between 1996 and 2009, we find issuers with higher option implied volatilities raise less external equity capital and pay higher investment bank fees in the stock market, ceteris paribus. The effect of implied volatility on the investment bank fees is stronger for larger issuers with lower pre-SEO abnormal realized stock volatilities, and for SEOs with higher expected price pressures around issue dates. These relationships are robust to adjustments for correlations among control variables, sample selection bias and also simultaneous determination of offer size and SEO fees.     

The relationship between implied and realized volatility: evidence from the Australian stock index option market

This paper examines the relationship between the volatility implied in option prices and the subsequently realized volatility by using the S&P/ASX 200 index options (XJO) traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) during a period of 5 years. Unlike stock index options such as the S&P 100 index options in the US market, the S&P/ASX 200 index options are traded infrequently and in low volumes, and have a long maturity cycle. Thus an errors-in-variables problem for measurement of implied volatility is more likely to exist. After accounting for this problem by instrumental variable method, it is found that both call and put implied volatilities are superior to historical volatility in forecasting future realized volatility. Moreover, implied call volatility is nearly an unbiased forecast of future volatility.

Managerial discretion and the economic determinants of the disclosed volatility parameter for valuing ESOs

This study investigates the determinants of the expected stock-price volatility assumption that firms use in estimating ESO values and thus option expense. We find that, consistent with the guidance of FAS 123, firms use both historical and implied volatility in deriving the expected volatility parameter. We also find, however, that the importance of each of the two variables in explaining disclosed volatility relates inversely to their values, which results in a reduction in expected volatility and thus option value. This can be interpreted as managers opportunistically use the discretion in estimating expected volatility afforded by FAS 123. Consistent with this, we find that managerial incentives or ability to understate option value play a key role in this behavior. Since discretion in estimating expected volatility is common to both FAS 123 and 123(R), our analysis has important implications for market participants as well as regulators.

宏观审慎视角下的系统性金融风险研究

全球金融危机使监管者认识到仅靠微观审慎监管无法保证金融系统的稳定,必须加强逆周期的宏观审慎监管。本文首先回顾了对系统性金融风险、宏观审慎监管等重要概念的认识和发展;其次比较了美国、欧盟的逆周期宏观审慎政策框架;再次对我国的信贷投放、资本监管和贷款损失拨备的顺周期性进行了实证检验;最后,本文对我国的逆周期宏观审慎监管提出了相关建议。     

Empirical analysis of real and financial volatilities on stock excess returns: evidence from Taiwan industrial data

This paper tests the relation between stock excess returns and risk factors measured by volatility. The sources of the volatility are based on the volatility of macroeconomic factors and time-series volatility. To model the macroeconomic fundamentals, we divide the risk into real and financial volatilities pertinent to Taiwan's economic environment. By examining the data of indusry excess returns and market excess returns, we find evidence to reject the hypothesis that the stock excess returns are independent of the real and financial volatilities.     

The role of political uncertainty in Australian financial markets

Within the developed world, recent Australian political history is uniquely turbulent. This situation invokes indecision regarding investment decisions in both the real economy and the financial markets. This paper explores the relationship between uncertainty in Australian federal election polling and resulting financial market uncertainty. Empirical evidence suggests that increasing (decreasing) levels of uncertainty around the election result induce higher (lower) levels of uncertainty in financial markets. The effect is more pronounced as polling day approaches. Industry‐level analysis suggests that the base materials sector is most significantly affected by election uncertainty in Australia.     

New evidence of extreme risk transmission between financial stress and international crude oil markets

We aim to analyze the risk transmission between financial stress and crude oil under different shocks, with applying a novel Granger causality test. Recent works suggest that this risk transmission is mixed, however, scholars mainly focus on their average causality but neglect the extreme causality and its time-varying characteristic. Using the weekly data of the financial stress index and WTI prices spanning from 1994 to 2020, we employ the extreme time-domain and frequency-domain Granger causality test to conduct our research. Results obtained from the time-domain test imply that their causality generally originates from extreme shocks rather than non-extreme shocks, which hasn’t been found before. For further distinguishing the long-run and short-run effects of these shocks, we apply the frequency-domain test and discover that these causalities are mainly found for long the run. Thus, investors and policy-makers may benefit from monitoring financial stress, especially under long-term extreme conditions.     

The bias in Black-Scholes/Black implied volatility: An analysis of equity and energy markets

In this paper we examine the extent of the bias between Black and Scholes (1973)/Black (1976) implied volatility and realized term volatility in the equity and energy markets. Explicitly modeling a market price of volatility risk, we extend previous work by demonstrating that Black-Scholes is an upward-biased predictor of future realized volatility in S&P 500/S&P 100 stock-market indices. Turning to the Black options-on-futures formula, we apply our methodology to options on energy contracts, a market in which crises are characterized by a positive correlation between price-returns and volatilities: After controlling for both term-structure and seasonality effects, our theoretical and empirical findings suggest a similar upward bias in the volatility implied in energy options contracts. We show the bias in both Black-Scholes/Black implied volatilities to be related to a negative market price of volatility risk. JEL Classification G12 · G13     

Global investigation on the country-level idiosyncratic volatility and its determinants

Adapting the Fama–French three-factor model to a global context, this paper investigates idiosyncratic volatility as a measure of country-specific risk, and explores its determinants by using the equity and risk data of 47 developed and emerging countries during the period 1995–2016. We find the stock market turnover to have a positive and significant impact on the country-level idiosyncratic volatility, while information disclosure and investor uncertainty avoidance degree are negatively associated with country-level idiosyncratic risk. Moreover, improvements in economic, financial, and political risks, as measured by GDP growth, FX stability, foreign debt health, and non-corruption degree decrease the country-level idiosyncratic volatility significantly. Among all sets of market structure, investor preference, and economic, financial, and political risk variables considered, we find financial risk factors, FX stability and foreign debt health, to have the highest explanatory power over the cross-sectional differences in country-level idiosyncratic risk.     

中国战略性新兴产业发展与金融支持的动态关联——基于沪深A股上市公司的经验数据

金融是现代经济的核心,战略性新兴产业发展离不开金融支持。以近三年七大战略新兴产业400多家上市公司季度数据为基础,通过面板数据协整分析和格兰杰因果检验探讨两者之间的动态关联。结果显示：金融支持对战略性新兴产业发展具有正效应,金融机构的支持力度提高1%,战略性新兴产业发展水平将提高0.76%。短期内两者呈现单向因果关系,金融支持是战略性新兴产业发展的原因,在长期两者互为因果关系。     

The importance of the volatility risk premium for volatility forecasting

In this paper, we study the role of the volatility risk premium for the forecasting performance of implied volatility. We introduce a non-parametric and parsimonious approach to adjust the model-free implied volatility for the volatility risk premium and implement this methodology using more than 20 years of options and futures data on three major energy markets. Using regression models and statistical loss functions, we find compelling evidence to suggest that the risk premium adjusted implied volatility significantly outperforms other models, including its unadjusted counterpart. Our main finding holds for different choices of volatility estimators and competing time-series models, underlying the robustness of our results.     

区域性金融风险预警的神经网络模型研究

牢守不发生系统性、区域性风险底线是金融稳定和金融监测、预警的重要任务。区域性金融风险预警的关键是合理选择风险指标。区域性金融风险指标选择既要考虑金融风险因素的普遍性,更要考虑金融发展的区域性,充分体现本地区金融发展的阶段性特征。结合广东发展的特点,选取反映区域性金融风险指标,利用因子分析法找出风险主要因子,并用神经网络进行风险预测预警,为防范区域性金融风险提供数量性决策依据。     

Better the devil you know: The influence of political incumbency on Australian financial market uncertainty

The Australian federal election cycle, which occurs approximately every 3 years, causes much media attention and invokes indecision regarding investment decisions in both the real economy and financial markets. This paper constructs measures of political uncertainty and formally explores their relationship with market uncertainty, as measured by implied volatility. The empirical evidence suggests that increasing (decreasing) levels of uncertainty around the election result induce higher (lower) levels of market uncertainty. In a case of the market preferring the devil it knows, an increasing (decreasing) likelihood of the incumbent party, whose economic policies are well-known, winning the election, reduces market uncertainty. The results remain significant even after controlling for a number of macroeconomic variables, and when an alternative GARCH framework is considered.     

中国金融结构与产业结构关系研究

以我国1978～2011年金融结构与产业结构的关系作为研究对象,利用单位根检验、协整关系检验、误差修正模型以及格兰杰因果关系检验等方法,在理论分析的基础上,进行了模型的构造,找出二者之间的长期与短期关系。通过分析发现,二者互为因果,且存在稳定关系。但目前我国两种结构上还存在着滞后经济发展的问题,需要进行结构优化。     

The survival probability of the SABR model: asymptotics and application

The stochastic-alpha-beta-rho (SABR) model is widely used by practitioners in interest rate and foreign exchange markets. The probability of hitting zero sheds light on the arbitrage-free small strike implied volatility of the SABR model (see, e.g. De Marco et al. [SIAM J. Financ. Math., 2017, 8(1), 709–737], Gulisashvili [Int. J. Theor. Appl. Financ., 2015, 18, 1550013], Gulisashvili et al. [Mass at zero in the uncorrelated SABR modeland implied volatility asymptotics, 2016b]), and the survival probability is also closely related to binary knock-out options. Besides, the study of the survival probability is mathematically challenging. This paper provides novel asymptotic formulas for the survival probability of the SABR model as well as error estimates. The formulas give the probability that the forward price does not hit a nonnegative lower boundary before a fixed time horizon.     

A High‐Frequency Investigation of the Interaction between Volatility and DAX Returns

One of the most noticeable stylised facts in finance is that stock index returns are negatively correlated with changes in volatility. The economic rationale for the effect is still controversial. The competing explanations have different implications for the origin of the relationship: Are volatility changes induced by index movements, or inversely, does volatility drive index returns? To differentiate between the alternative hypotheses, we analyse the lead‐lag relationship of option implied volatility and index return in Germany based on Granger causality tests and impulse‐response functions. Our dataset consists of all transactions in DAX options and futures over the time period from 1995 to 2005. Analyzing returns over 5‐minute intervals, we find that the relationship is return‐driven in the sense that index returns Granger cause volatility changes. This causal relationship is statistically and economically significant and can be clearly separated from the contemporaneous correlation. The largest part of the implied volatility response occurs immediately, but we also observe a smaller retarded reaction for up to one hour. A volatility feedback effect is not discernible. If it exists, the stock market appears to correctly anticipate its importance for index returns.     

The determinants of the volatility of returns on cross-border asset holdings

Using both panel and cross-sectional models for 28 industrialized countries observed from 2001–2009, we report a number of findings regarding the determinants of the volatility of returns on cross-border asset holdings (i.e., equity and debt). Greater portfolio concentration and an increase in assets held in emerging markets lead to an elevation in earning volatility, whereas more financial integration and a greater share held in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and by the household sector cause a reduction in the return volatility. Larger asset holdings by offshore financial corporations and non-bank financial institutions cause higher market volatility, although they affect volatility in the equity and bond markets in the opposite way. Overall, both panel and cross-sectional estimations provide very similar results (albeit of different magnitude) and are robust to the endogeneity problem.     

产业技术进步与金融的市场化趋势:①基于银行与市场功能比较的分析

本文首先回顾了产业技术进步历史上影响最深远的三次技术革命,发现新兴的产业技术几乎都是最初发展于"市场主导型金融体系"的美国、英国。比较而言,"银行主导型金融体系"的日本、德国更擅长于学习和推广成熟技术。本文进而基于银行与市场功能比较的视角,分析了二者对于不同特征产业和处于生命周期不同阶段产业的作用差异,以及二者在风险管理上的功能差异。全文的主要结论是:金融市场对于推动自主创新和技术进步,并有效管理经济体系的风险具有特别重要的意义,中国的金融改革应努力构建一个市场主导型的金融体系。     

产业技术进步与金融的市场化趋势:基于银行与市场功能比较的分析

本文首先回顾了产业技术进步历史上影响最深远的三次技术革命,发现新兴的产业技术几乎都是最初发展于“市场主导型金融体系”的美国、英国。比较而言,“银行主导型金融体系”的日本、德国更擅长于学习和推广成熟技术。本文进而基于银行与市场功能比较的视角,分析了二者对于不同特征产业和处于生命周期不同阶段产业的作用差异,以及二者在风险管理上的功能差异。全文的主要结论是：金融市场对于推动自主创新和技术进步,并有效管理经济体系的风险具有特别重要的意义,中国的金融改革应努力构建一个市场主导型的金融体系。