Forecasting volatility of futures market: the S&P 500 and FTSE 100 futures using high frequency returns and implied volatility

We show that historical volatility from high frequency returns outperforms implied volatility when standardized returns by historical volatility tends to be normally distributed. For the FTSE 100 futures, we find that historical volatility using high frequency returns outperforms implied volatility in forecasting future volatility. However, we find that implied volatility outperforms historical volatility in forecasting future volatility for the S&P 500 futures. The results also indicate that historical volatility using high frequency returns could be an unbiased forecast for the FTSE 100 futures.     

Market overreaction and investment strategies

We investigated the overreaction of the Korean market in response to shocks in the US stock market, and analysed the dynamic relationship between these two markets since 1996. We found that the KOSPI 200 index futures overreacted to the S&P 500 index returns during the period from 2000 to 2009 when the Korean market was in its growth stage. As the Korean market matured and the KOSPI 200 overnight futures were introduced in 2009, the overreaction disappeared. When investors employed the Kelly model or Value-at-Risk to exploit the overreaction, their trading strategies produced significant profits during the growth stage even after considering transaction costs and risk, but the profits attenuated once the overnight futures market was launched in 2009.     

Measuring the impacts of cash settlement: A stochastic volatility approach

Prior to 1986, any opening position on feeder cattle futures contract must be settled with physical delivery after the last trading day. Due to dwindling commercial interests, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) subsequently replaced the system with the cash settlement method. It was argued that cash settlement would help improve the convergence between cash and futures prices and reduce the basis variability. In this paper, we adopted stochastic volatility (SV) models to investigate this conjecture. The models allow for time-varying volatility. We found strong evidence of reduction in basis and in basis variance after cash settlement. Moreover, cash settlement induced a change in the structural relationship between cash and futures prices. The futures market has become more efficient after the change in settlement methods.     

Contract settlement specification and price discovery: Empirical evidence in Australia individual share futures market

This study applies Geweke [J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 76 (1982) 304] measures of information flow and dependence between Australian individual share futures (ISF) contract and its underlying stock market to investigate whether the price discovery function of futures price has been enhanced after the switch of futures contracts from cash settlement to physical delivery. It is found that the spot market leads the futures market as the futures trading volume is rather small. Further tests suggest that the switch from cash settlement to physical delivery in the ISF contracts has reinforced the information flow from the spot market to the futures market.     

The Impact of Monetary Surprises on Australian Financial Futures Markets: An Insight into Cash Rate Target Announcements

This paper investigates the impact of unanticipated Australian monetary policy changes on AUD/USD exchange rate futures, and 3‐year and 10‐year Australian Treasury bond futures, during the period from January 1997 to April 2010. Our study contributes to the literature by using both the 30‐day and the 90‐day bank accepted bill (BAB) rates to disentangle the unexpected surprise component of monetary policy changes from overall cash rate target changes in the Australian money market, and by concurrently modelling the effects of monetary surprises and other key macroeconomic announcements in Australia. The empirical results suggest that the 30‐day BAB rate is the best proxy for the expected monetary policy actions. We find that the effect of monetary surprises on the volatility of the 3‐ and 10‐year bond future instruments is significant and persistent. We have also documented a strong monetary policy effect on the mean returns of the exchange rate futures, indicating that unexpected monetary policy adjustments have a significant impact on the level of the exchange rate movements rather than on the volatility of the FX futures market.     

Information,Pricing and Efficiency in Cash and Futures Markets: The Case of Hogs

The price leadership roles among hog cash and futures markets are assessed to locate points of price discovery and to examine flows of information among these markets. Several years of data are analyzed using lead/lag causality analysis and strength of linear causality measures. Although significant instantaneous relationships exist among hog cash and futures markets, one-way causality tests indicate that generally the futures market dominates cash hog markets in the price discovery process.     

Environmental rights on the futures markets an application to the dutch manure market

A study was carried out to analyze futures markets for tradable rights after a cash market was initiated. Furthermore, some indication was given on the size of such a futures market to provide insight into its viability. Futures markets can play a role in solving environmental problems, by making the market for pollution rights (i.e. P₂O₅ rights) and agro rights (milk rights, sugar rights and P₂O₅ rights) more effective and transparent. Moreover, the market for tradable rights would be able to meet the users' need for hedging. This paper investigated the possibility of introducing a futures markets for tradable P₂O₅ rights and the commodity manure. Because there is already a cash market for manure, although not well developed yet, and there will be a cash market for P₂O₅ rights, a futures market is a logical sequel. The futures market can play a role in implementing agricultural policy efficiently and with respect to manure and P₂O₅ rights can be an economically efficient solution to environmental problems.We acknowledge the financial support of the ATA (Agricultural Futures Market Amsterdam).     

美欧煤炭期货市场发展研究

文章以美欧上市煤炭期货前后背景为出发点,分析美国和欧洲上市煤炭期货前后的经济环境、煤炭市场供需情况以及上市后的市场运行情况等,并对美欧煤炭期货市场进行对比分析,引出现代期货市场已经具有为生产者、经营者、消费者甚至投机者在内的一种市场导向功能,特别是生产导向功能方面表现最为明显。     

中国农产品期货市场效率实证分析:1998-2002

本文旨在检验1998-2002年我国小麦和大豆期货市场效率并对农产品期货市场和现货市场做出相应评估.通过采纳Johansen协整检验方法,论文针对三种不同的现货价格以及预测跨度从1周到6个月不等的期货价格进行了正式统计检验.结果表明,我国大豆期货价格与现货价格之间存在长期均衡关系,大豆期货市场的短期效率相对较高.小麦期货市场缺乏效率,这可能应当归因于期货市场发展尚不成熟以及投机过度.     

Commodity futures contracts: Furnishing an elastic currency in the nineteenth century

In this paper, I show that nineteenth century US interest rates are relatively more volatile before 1874 and I propose, and demonstrate how, commodity futures trading is the likely principal proximate explanation for this change in behavior. Borrowing from Turnovsky [Econometrica 51 (1983) 1363], I model the optimizing behaviors of risk averse producers and risk neutral speculators in the absence and presence of futures contracts and I show that, so long as one party to a futures contract was risk averse, futures markets would have quelled interest rate volatility caused by variations in planting and harvesting conditions.     

Market volatility and the dynamic hedging of multi-commodity price risk

Commodity cash and futures prices experienced a severe boom-and-bust cycle between 2006 and 2009. Increases in commodity price volatility have raised concerns about the usefulness of commodity futures and options as risk management tools. Dynamic hedging strategies have the potential to improve risk management when conditional (co)variances depart significantly from their unconditional, long-run counterparts and may be useful to decision-makers despite their greater complexity and higher transaction costs. We propose a Nonparametric Copula-based Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (NPC-GARCH) approach to estimate time-varying hedge ratios, and evaluate the benefits of dynamic hedging during four sub-periods between 2000 and 2011 using a stylized Texas cattle feedlot management problem. The NPC-GARCH approach allows for a flexible, nonlinear and asymmetric dependence structure between cash and futures prices for different commodities. We find that NPC-GARCH dynamic hedging performs better than either static, GARCH-Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) or GARCH-Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner (BEKK) hedging in terms of lower tail risk (expected shortfall), but that there is no significant difference between hedging approaches in terms of portfolio variance reduction.     

The empirical study on price discovery of cornstarch futures market in China

This article aims at exploring the performance of the price discovery function of cornstarch futures market in China. In order to test the stationarity of the cash and futures prices of cornstarch, the augmented Dickey–Fuller test is applied. Both prices are integrated of order one. Then, the Johansen cointegration test is conducted to test the cointegrating relationship between those two prices. Finally, the Granger causality test is performed to observe the direction of causality. The evidence shows that there is a long-run relationship between cash and futures prices and the futures price Granger causes cash price. As a whole, price discovery of cornstarch market in China is present although it is a newly emerged market.     

Dynamic hedge ratio for stock index futures: application of threshold VECM

This study represents one of the first papers in stock-index-futures arbitrage literature to investigate the effects of arbitrage threshold on stock index futures hedging effectiveness by using threshold vector error correction model (hereafter threshold VECM). Moreover, in contrast to prior studies focusing on examining case studies involving mature stock markets, this study not only adopts US S&P 500 stock market as the sample but also adds an analysis of one emerging stock market, Hungarian BSI and examines the differences between them. Finally, this investigation employs a rolling estimation process to examine the impact of arbitrage threshold behaviours on the setting of futures hedging ratio. The empirical findings of this study are consistent with the following notions. First, arbitrage behaviour reduces co-movement between futures and spot markets and increases the volatility of both futures and spot markets. Second, this article denotes the outer regime of futures-spot market for the case of Hungarian BSI (US S&P 500) as a crisis (an unusual) condition. Moreover, arbitrage threshold behaviours make remarkable (unremarkable) shift on optimal hedge ratio between two different market regimes for the case of Hungarian BSI (US S&P 500). Finally, the framework involving regime-varying hedge ratio designed in this study provides a more efficient futures hedge ratio design for Hungarian BSI stock market, but not for US S&P 500 stock market.     

Volatility transmission between Islamic and conventional equity markets: evidence from causality-in-variance test

This study examines whether a volatility/risk transmission exists between the Dow Jones Islamic stock and three conventional stock markets for the United States, Europe and Asia during the pre- and the in- and post-2008 crisis periods. It also explores the volatility spillover dynamics between those markets and US Monetary policy, oil prices, global financial risk and uncertainty factors. The recently developed Hafner and Herwartz (2006)’s causality-in-variance test provides evidence of risk transfers between these seemingly different equity markets, indicating a contagion between them during the full sample and the subperiods. The volatility structure of these markets is dominated by short-run volatility in the first period and by high long-run volatility in the second period. The volatility impulse response analysis indicates a similar volatility transmission pattern although it is characterized by a more volatile and short-lived structure in the second period. It also appears that the Islamic equity market responds to shocks from the risk factors and not from the oil price and the US economic policy uncertainty index during both periods.     

中国大豆期货市场有效吗?——基于事件分析法的研究

中国期货市场是否有效是学术界争论的焦点之一,本文在事件分析法的研究框架下通过GJR-GARCH形式的市场模型研究中国大豆期货市场上的日历效应和事件效应。研究发现,中国汇率制度改革、美国信贷危机爆发、中国人民银行调整利率以及中国南方地区遭受重大雪灾等事件在大豆期货市场上产生了非正常累计收益,从而表明大豆期货市场不是半强式有效的。同时,主力合约收益序列存在显著的周日历效应,从而表明该市场也不是弱式有效的。由此证伪了中国大豆期货市场是有效市场这一命题。因此,需要进一步加强制度建设来提升期货市场的有效性。     

Forecast Errors and Efficiency in the US Electricity Futures Market

In March 1996 the US introduced electricity futures contracts which provided for delivery at the California/Oregon border (COB) and Palo Verde switchyard. These were followed in July 1998 by contracts which provided for delivery of electrical energy into the Cinergy and Entergy systems, and in March 1999 by a contract for the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Maryland (PJM) area. This paper employs the forecast error approach to study the informational efficiency of these markets (the model prediction and event studies approaches are not feasible). COB and Palo Verde spot and futures prices are stationary, while Cinergy spot and futures prices are I(1) and cointegrated (Entergy and PJM data were not utilised due to insufficient observations). All forecast errors, therefore, are stationary. Estimation is by instrumental variables in the presence of a lagged dependent variable and overlapping observations. For the period 1996 (04) to 1999 (12), with COB and Palo Verde data, the efficient markets hypothesis (EMH) is rejected. This outcome is confirmed by cointegration of the COB and Palo Verde futures prices. A significant M-GARCH term in the forecast error relationship for both contracts supports the view that a time-varying risk premium was present. A significant negative relationship between forecast errors and volume for the COB contract suggests that agents were still learning the true model driving this market, and that Stein's 'Bayesian error' was non-zero.
For the period 1998 (07) to 1999 (12), with COB, Palo Verde and Cinergy data, the EMH cannot be rejected. Finally, an attempt is made to relate this study to the recent electricity crisis in California.     

我国引入股指期货交易的意义及可行性分析

到目前为止,我国股市仅有现货交易,却没有有效的风险回避机制,这必将影响到我国股市健康发展。因此,当前开发我国股指期货交易可以回避股市系统风险,增加市场流动性,促进股价合理波动,从而增强证券市场的竞争力。同时,在我国已经形成了较为完善的交易和监管体系,并拥有了相当规模的投资群体,开办股指期货的市场条件已具备。     

Derivative securities and cash market stability

This study investigates the effect of introducing interest-rate futures and options on the price variances in related financial cash markets. Standard research approaches to this issue relate cash-price stability before the introduction of futures and options trading to cash-price stability after trading in the derivative security begins. However, controlling for the additional factors that may also effect cash markets is difficult. The approach employed here to deal with this obstacle is motivated by recent theoretical research relating cash and futures markets, but hitherto not operationalized to empirically test for a relationship between the markets. Varying-parameter models of (1) the demand for short-term Treasury securities, (2) the demand for large time-deposits, and (3) the supply of large time-deposits are specified such that changes in the parameters imply changes in the volatility of the cash price. These parameters are modelled as functions of the trading volume of interest-rate futures and options, thereby enabling a direct test of the hypothesis that trading volume in these derivative securities influences the behaviour of cash-market participants, and therefore, cash-price volatility. We find no convincing evidence that the level of activity in interest-rate futures and options has a significant effect on these cash markets.     

The High‐Frequency Responses of Australian Financial Futures to Unexpected Cash Rate Announcements*

This study examines the high‐frequency responses of Australian financial futures to monetary surprises using intra‐day futures data. Using the event window method with tick data to control for the endogeneity between market interest rates and the cash rate, our empirical findings support the following. First, monetary policy announcements significantly impact not only short‐term interest rate futures but also longer‐term treasury security future markets. Second, the most significant responses of these markets occur in the event window that contains the policy announcement. Third, we also find that the monetary policy is not well anticipated by market participants until the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy release.     

Can technical oscillators outperform the buy and hold strategy?

This study compares returns from the traditional buy and hold (B&H) strategy to well-known technical oscillators applied to diverse indices leading the global market (DJI, FTSE, NK225 and TA100) during the period 2007–2012. Our aim was to establish whether technical tools can consistently achieve returns exceeding those of the B&H strategy across various financial markets. We found the relative strength index (RSI) to be the best oscillator, outperforming the DJIA, the FTSE100 and the NK225 for five of the six years examined. The only index that did better than the RSI was TA100, which outperformed all the examined oscillators. In second place was the moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) oscillator, which outperformed the NK225 B&H strategy and came in second for TA100. The results show that during bear markets the RSI and MACD generally produce better gains than the indices, while the opposite occurs during bull markets.