The term structure of volatility predictability

Volatility forecasting is crucial for portfolio management, risk management, and pricing of derivative securities. Still, little is known about the accuracy of volatility forecasts and the horizon of volatility predictability. This paper aims to fill these gaps in the literature. We begin this paper by introducing the notions of spot and forward predicted volatilities and propose describing the term structure of volatility predictability by spot and forward forecast accuracy curves. Then, we perform a comprehensive study of the term structure of volatility predictability in stock and foreign exchange markets. Our results quantify the volatility forecast accuracy across horizons in two major markets and suggest that the horizon of volatility predictability is significantly longer than that reported in earlier studies. Nevertheless, the aforesaid horizon is observed to be much shorter than the longest maturity of traded derivative contracts.     

Implied volatility and the risk-free rate of return in options markets

We numerically solve systems of Black–Scholes formulas for implied volatility and implied risk-free rate of return. After using a seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) model to obtain point estimates for implied volatility and implied risk-free rate, the options are re-priced using these parameters. After repricing, the difference between the market price and model price is increasing in time to expiration, while the effect of moneyness and the bid-ask spread are ambiguous. Our varying risk-free rate model yields Black–Scholes prices closer to market prices than the fixed risk-free rate model. In addition, our model is better for predicting future evolutions in model-free implied volatility as measured by the VIX.     

Capital control and exchange rate volatility

The study offers one conceptual and theoretical framework for evaluating the economic effects of a trading tax on foreign exchange transactions. Taxes and the price stickiness mechanism are taken into account in the model. When prices are flexible, full monetary neutrality can be obtained even in the short-term. Intuitively, taxes on foreign exchange transactions discourage speculation by rising currency trading costs, and, thus, increase the stability of the exchange rate. Finally, the results show that not only the exchange rate but consumption, investment and employment will become less volatile by imposing trading taxes on foreign exchange transactions.     

Forecasting risk in the US Dollar exchange rate under volatility shifts

Recent evidence suggests that volatility shifts (i.e. structural breaks in volatility) in returns increases kurtosis which significantly contributes to the observed non-normality in market returns. In this paper, we endogenously detect significant shifts in the volatility of US Dollar exchange rate and incorporate this information to estimate Value-at-Risk (VaR) to forecast large declines in the US Dollar exchange rate. Our out-of-sample performance results indicate that a GARCH model with volatility shifts produces the most accurate VaR forecast relative to several benchmark methods. Our contribution is important as changes in US Dollar exchange rate have a substantial impact on the global economy and financial markets.     

Exchange rate misalignments,capital flows and volatility

This study investigates the effect of three dimensions of exchange rate misalignments—(i) distance (absolute misalignments), (ii) direction (overvaluation or undervaluation), and (iii) degree (small or large misalignments)—on the overall as well as short-cycle exchange rate volatility. Using data from 1988 to 2014, we find that relative PPP-based exchange rate misalignments increase exchange rate volatility. For developed and developing countries, this increase in volatility is driven mainly by large undervalued misalignments of the U.S. dollar. This finding might be linked to interventions targeting the loss in domestic producers’ competitiveness in global markets. Interestingly, in the case of developed countries, we find this adverse effect on exchange rate volatility also for small absolute misalignments; exchange rate movements close to equilibrium may be associated with ambiguity with respect to future movements in developed countries, which can result in higher exchange rate volatility. Further, the results suggest that, when the dollar is highly undervalued, capital flows have a stabilizing effect on exchange rate volatility in developed countries but a destabilizing effect in developing countries. The finding is consistent with investors’ strategy of taking exchange rate overvaluation and undervaluation into account when engaging in cross-border investments.     

Estimation of affine term structure models with spanned or unspanned stochastic volatility

We develop new procedures for maximum likelihood estimation of affine term structure models with spanned or unspanned stochastic volatility. Our approach uses linear regression to reduce the dimension of the numerical optimization problem yet it produces the same estimator as maximizing the likelihood. It improves the numerical behavior of estimation by eliminating parameters from the objective function that cause problems for conventional methods. We find that spanned models capture the cross-section of yields well but not volatility while unspanned models fit volatility at the expense of fitting the cross-section.     

Incorporating the RMB internationalization effect into its exchange rate volatility forecasting

Recently, the Chinese government has launched the renminbi (RMB) internationalization policy as an impetus to foster China’s global economic integration. The RMB internationalization effect on China’s economy and the RMB exchange rate has attracted massive attention in recent financial research. In this paper, we adopt a genetic programming (GP) method to generate new RMB exchange rate volatility forecasting models incorporating the RMB internationalization effect. Our models are proved to have significant accuracy improvement in predicting both RMB/US dollar and RMB/euro exchange rate volatilities, compared with standard GARCH volatility models, which are incapable of capturing the RMB internationalization effect. Furthermore, our models display salient practical implications for policy makers to formulate monetary policies and currency traders to design effective trading strategies.     

The effect of nominal exchange rate volatility on real macroeconomic performance in the CEE countries

This paper analyzes the relation between nominal exchange rate volatility and several macroeconomic variables, namely real output growth, excess credit, foreign direct investment (FDI) and the current account balance, in the Central and Eastern European EU member states. Using panel estimations for the period between 1995 and 2008, we find that lower exchange rate volatility is associated with higher growth, higher stocks of FDI, higher current account deficits, and higher excess credit. At the same time, the recent evidence seems to suggest that following the global financial crisis, “hard peg” countries may have experienced a more severe adjustment process than “floaters”. The results are economically and statistically significant and robust.     

人民币汇率波动对NFDI波动的影响及其检验

本文通过对我国NFDI资本流动性及其波动性的计算,检验了人民币/美元汇率波动对NFDI波动性的关系。通过实证分析表明,人民币汇率的波动将导致NFDI资本流动的明显不稳定。在理论研究的基础上,引申出其政策含义：在国际资本流动不断加大的今天,我们必须维护人民币/美元汇率的稳定,这样对于有效引导NFDI的资本流动和维护金融稳定都具有重要的意义。     

Impact of volatility jumps in a mean-reverting model: Derivative pricing and empirical evidence

This paper investigates the critical role of volatility jumps under mean reversion models. Based on the empirical tests conducted on the historical prices of commodities, we demonstrate that allowing for the presence of jumps in volatility in addition to price jumps is a crucial factor when confronting non-Gaussian return distributions. By employing the particle filtering method, a comparison of results drawn among several mean-reverting models suggests that incorporating volatility jumps ensures an improved fit to the data. We infer further empirical evidence for the existence of volatility jumps from the possible paths of filtered state variables. Our numerical results indicate that volatility jumps significantly affect the level and shape of implied volatility smiles. Finally, we consider the pricing of options under the mean reversion model, where the underlying asset price and its volatility both have jump components.     

Exchange rate volatility and Spanish-American commodity trade flows

A number of recent studies have tested the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows, particularly for individual commodities, for various country pairs. These have found that risk can increase as well as decrease trade, but that oftentimes industries are not affected. This study examines trade between the United States and Spain over the period from 1962 to 2009, for 131 U.S. export industries and 88 import industries. We find that exchange rate volatility has short-run and long-run effects in only a fraction of the cases, but that exports respond more to increased uncertainty than imports do. In all, only 35 of the 74 U.S. export industries are affected (11 positive, 24 negative), whilst only three out of 37 import industries have positive coefficients and 11 have negative ones. We find no evidence that durable or nondurable goods are more likely to respond to volatility, whilst small industries or specialized goods might show more of a positive response.     

Causality and volatility patterns between gold prices and exchange rates

This paper provides a new perspective on the link between gold prices and exchange rates. Based on gold prices denominated in five different currencies and the related bilateral exchange rates, we put causalities and short-run volatility transmission under closer scrutiny. We provide evidence that the identification of a strong hedge function of gold requires an explicit modeling of the volatility component. For all currencies, exchange rate depreciations initially have a negative impact on the gold price after one day which turns out to be positive after two days in most of the cases. Contrary to previous studies, our results point to a specific role of the dollar in the context of gold-exchange rate relationships: volatility of dollar exchange rates more frequently results in strong hedging functions of gold prices. Furthermore, the gold price denominated in the US dollar tends to increase after a depreciation of the dollar.     

The effect of exchange rate volatility on U.S. bilateral trade with Africa: A symmetric and asymmetric analysis

The impact of exchange rate volatility on U.S. trade with the world or on U.S. trade with major partners has been assessed by many researchers, but none have considered the case of U.S. trade with African nations. We fill this gap by assessing the symmetric and asymmetric impact of the real bilateral exchange rate volatility between the U.S. dollar and each African partner’s currency on the U.S. trade flows with each of the 20 partners from Africa. We found asymmetric short-run effects of exchange rate volatility on almost all U.S. exports to and imports from each of the 20 countries. In addition, significant long-run asymmetric effects were discovered in the case of U.S. exports to 15 countries and U.S. imports from 12 countries. Our findings are partner-specific.     

Time-varying risk aversion and renminbi exchange rate volatility: Evidence from CARR-MIDAS model

In this paper, we investigate the relation between time-varying risk aversion and renminbi exchange rate volatility using the conditional autoregressive range-mixed-data sampling (CARR-MIDAS) model. The CARR-MIDAS model is a range-based volatility model, which exploits intraday information regarding the intraday trajectory of the price. Moreover, the model features a MIDAS structure allowing for time-varying risk aversion to drive the long-run volatility dynamics. Our empirical results show that time-varying risk aversion has a significantly negative effect on the long-run volatility of renminbi exchange rate. Moreover, we observe that both intraday ranges and time-varying risk aversion contain important information for forecasting renminbi exchange rate volatility. The range-based CARR-MIDAS model incorporating time-varying risk aversion provides more accurate out-of-sample forecasts of renminbi exchange rate volatility compared to a variety of competing models, including the return-based GARCH, GARCH-MIDAS and GARCH-MIDAS incorporating time-varying risk aversion as well as range-based CARR, CARR-MIDAS and heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR), for forecast horizons of 1 day up to 3 months. This result is robust to alternative risk aversion measure, alternative MIDAS lags as well as alternative out-of-sample periods. Overall, our findings highlight the value of incorporating intraday information and time-varying risk aversion for forecasting the renminbi exchange rate volatility.     

Impact of an unexplained component of real exchange rate volatility on FDI: Evidence from transition countries

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of an unexplained component of real exchange rate volatility on FDI in transition economies. We make an attempt to overcome some problems associated with previous studies; the aggregation problem, inadequate measures of volatility, short-run focus and the endogeneity problem. Using a GARCH specification, we focus on long-run volatility, while we control for the endogeneity problem by applying SYS-GMM estimation. The obtained results show that the impact of the unexplained component of real exchange rate volatility on FDI differs among economic activities since 2000. As part of the re-estimation exercise, we use two alternative measures of volatility to avoid arbitrariness. The obtained results are to a large extent in accordance with the first one.     

Monotonicity preserving regression techniques for interest rate term structure estimation: A note

Alternative methodologies are compared for measuring the term structure of interest rates via monotone approximations to the discount function. Some empirical comparisons using coupon bond data show that a simple linear methodology based on rational tension spline parametrizations turns out to yield the most efficient compromise between the conflicting goals of goodness of fit and smoothuess of the interpolaut Work supported by M.U.R.S.T. funds.     

Bond risk, bond return volatility, and the term structure of interest rates

This paper explores the time variation in the bond risk, as measured by the covariation of bond returns with stock returns and consumption growth, and in the volatility of bond returns. A robust stylized fact in empirical finance is that the spread between the yields on long- and short-term bonds forecasts future excess returns on bonds at varying horizons positively; in addition, the short-term nominal interest rate forecasts both the stock return volatility and the exchange rate volatility positively. This paper presents evidence that movements in both the short-term nominal interest rate and the yield spread are positively related to changes in the subsequent realized bond risk and bond return volatility. The yield spread appears to proxy for business conditions, while the short rate appears to proxy for inflation and economic uncertainty. A decomposition of bond betas into a real cash flow risk component and a discount rate risk component shows that yield spreads have offsetting effects in each component. A widening yield spread is correlated with a reduced cash-flow (or inflationary) risk for bonds, but it is also correlated with a larger discount rate risk for bonds. The short rate only forecasts the discount rate component of the bond beta.     

The dynamic impact of oil price shocks on the stock market and the USD/RMB exchange rate: Evidence from implied volatility indices

Using daily data from March 16, 2011, to September 9, 2019, we explore the dynamic impact of the oil implied volatility index (OVX) changes on the Chinese stock implied volatility index (VXFXI) changes and on the USD/RMB exchange rate implied volatility index (USDCNYV1M) changes. Through a TVP-VAR model, we analyse the time-varying uncertainty transmission effects across the three markets, measured by the changes in implied volatility indices. The empirical results show that the OVX changes are the dominant factor, which has a positive impact on the USDCNYV1M changes and the VXFXI changes during periods of important political and economic events. Moreover, USDCNYV1M changes are the key factor affecting the impact of OVX changes on VXFXI changes. When the oil crisis, exchange rate reform, and stock market crash occurred during 2014–2016, the positive effects of uncertainty transmission among the oil market, the Chinese stock market, and the bilateral exchange rate are significantly strengthened. Finally, we find that the positive effects are significant in the short term but diminish over time.     

Statistical learning and exchange rate forecasting

This study uses innovative tools recently proposed in the statistical learning literature to assess the capability of standard exchange rate models to predict the exchange rate in the short and long runs. Our results show that statistical learning methods deliver remarkably good performance, outperforming the random walk in forecasting the exchange rate at different forecasting horizons, with the exception of the very short term (a period of one to two months). These results were robust across countries, time, and models. We then used these tools to compare the predictive capabilities of different exchange rate models and model specifications, and found that sticky price versions of the monetary model with an error correction specification delivered the best performance. We also explain the operation of the statistical learning models by developing measures of variable importance and analyzing the kind of relationship that links each variable with the outcome. This gives us a better understanding of the relationship between the exchange rate and economic fundamentals, which appears complex and characterized by strong non-linearities.     

Exchange rate volatility and fluctuations in the extensive margin of trade

The existing evidence for exporters׳ entry and exit in response to exchange rate movements is based on either low frequency data or a sample with large devaluations. Using quarterly data of U.S. bilateral trade with 99 countries, this study provides new evidence that the extensive margin of trade fluctuates over the business cycle. First, I show that the extensive margin of exports to the U.S. and the extensive margin of imports from the U.S. are more volatile than the output of almost all trading partners. Next, I find that fixing exchange rates with the U.S. dollar, having a free trade agreement with the U.S., and an increase in country size is significantly associated with the stability of the pattern of trade with the U.S.