Informed options trading on the implied volatility surface: A cross-sectional approach

This study investigates the cross-sectional implication of informed options trading across different strikes and maturities. We explore the term structure perspective of the one-way information transmission from options markets to stock markets by adopting well-known option-implied volatility measures to examine stock return predictability. Using equity options data for U.S. listed stocks spanning 2000–2013, we find that the shape of the long-term implied volatility curve exhibits extra predictive power for stock returns of subsequent months even after orthogonalizing the short-term components. Our findings indicate that the inter-market information asymmetry rapidly disappears before the expiration of long-term option contracts.     

The log-moment formula for implied volatility

We revisit the foundational Moment Formula proved by Roger Lee fifteen years ago. We show that in the absence of arbitrage, if the underlying stock price at time T admits finite log-moments $\mathbb{E}[|\log S_T{|}^q]$ for some positive q, the arbitrage-free growth in the left wing of the implied volatility smile for T is less constrained than Lee's bound. The result is rationalized by a market trading discretely monitored variance swaps wherein the payoff is a function of squared log-returns, and requires no assumption for the underlying price to admit any negative moment. In this respect, the result can be derived from a model-independent setup. As a byproduct, we relax the moment assumptions on the stock price to provide a new proof of the notorious Gatheral–Fukasawa formula expressing variance swaps in terms of the implied volatility.     

The implied volatility smirk of commodity options

This paper studies the implied volatility (IV) smirks in four commodity markets by adopting Zhang and Xiang's methodology. First, we document the term structure and dynamics of IV smirks. Overall, the commodity IV curves are negatively skewed with a positive curvature. Then we analyze the commodity and S&P 500 returns' predictability based on in‐sample and out‐of‐sample tests and find that the information embedded in IV smirks can significantly predict monthly commodity and S&P 500 returns. For example, the risk‐neutral fourth cumulant (FC) from the crude oil market outperforms all of the standard predictors in predicting the S&P 500 returns.     

The Fed's policy decisions and implied volatility

This study examines how the Fed's monetary policy decisions affect the implied volatility of the S&P 500 index. The results show that stock market uncertainty is significantly affected by the Fed's policy decisions. In particular, we find that implied volatility generally decreases after FOMC meetings, while the relationship between target rate surprises and market uncertainty appears positive. However, our results also suggest that the apparent positive relationship between policy surprises and implied volatility is mostly driven by the volatility‐reducing effects of negative surprises. We further document that implied volatility is affected by both scheduled and unscheduled policy actions, with the scheduled path surprises having the strongest impact on volatility. Finally, our findings indicate that the impact of monetary policy decisions on implied volatility is more pronounced during periods of expansive policy. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark     

Multifactor implied volatility functions for HJM models

This study evaluates two one‐factor, two two‐factor, and two three‐factor implied volatility functions in the HJM class, with the use of eurodollar futures options across both strike prices and maturities. The primary contributions of this article are (a) to propose and test three implied volatility multifactor functions not considered by K. I. Amin and A. J. Morton (1994), (b) to evaluate models using the AIC criteria as well as other standard criteria neglected by S. Y. M. Zeto (2002), and (c) to .nd that multifactor models incorporating the exponential decaying implied volatility functions generally outperform other models in .tting and prediction, in sharp contrast to K. I. Amin and A. J. Morton, who find the constantvolatility model superior. Correctly specified and calibrated simple constant and square‐root factor models may be superior to inappropriate multifactor models in option trading and hedging strategies. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:809–833, 2006     

The forecast quality of CBOE implied volatility indexes

We examine the forecast quality of Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) implied volatility indexes based on the Nasdaq 100 and Standard and Poor's 100 and 500 stock indexes. We find that the forecast quality of CBOE implied volatilities for the S&P 100 (VXO) and S&P 500 (VIX) has improved since 1995. Implied volatilities for the Nasdaq 100 (VXN) appear to provide even higher quality forecasts of future volatility. We further find that attenuation biases induced by the econometric problem of errors in variables appear to have largely disappeared from CBOE volatility index data since 1995. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 25:339–373, 2005     

An approximation formula for normal implied volatility under general local stochastic volatility models

We approximate normal implied volatilities by means of an asymptotic expansion method. The contribution of this paper is twofold: to our knowledge, this paper is the first to provide a unified approximation method for the normal implied volatility under general local stochastic volatility models. Second, we applied our framework to polynomial local stochastic volatility models with various degrees and could replicate the swaptions market data accurately. In addition we examined the accuracy of the results by comparison with the Monte‐Carlo simulations.     

The information content of implied volatility in agricultural commodity markets

In this article we compare the incremental information content of lagged implied volatility to GARCH models of conditional volatility for a collection of agricultural commodities traded on the New York Board of Trade. We also assess the relevance of the additional information provided by the implied volatility in a risk management framework. It is first shown that past squared returns only marginally improve the information content provided by the lagged implied volatility. Secondly, value‐at‐risk (VaR) models that rely exclusively on lagged implied volatility perform as well as VaR models where the conditional variance is modelled according to GARCH type processes. These results indicate that the implied volatility for options on futures contracts in agricultural commodity markets provides relevant volatility information that can be used as an input to VaR models. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 23:441–454, 2003     

The information content of implied volatility in light of the jump/continuous decomposition of realized volatility

In the framework of encompassing regressions, the information content of the jump/continuous components of historical volatility is assessed when implied volatility is included as an additional regressor. The authors' empirical application focuses on daily and intradaily data for the S&P100 and S&P500 indexes, and daily data for the associated VXO and VIX implied volatility indexes. The results show that the total explanatory power of the encompassing regressions barely changes when the jump/continuous components are included, although the weekly and monthly continuous components are usually significant. This evidence supports the view that implied volatility has very high information content, even when extended decompositions of past realized volatility are used. Moreover, adding GARCH‐type volatility forecasts in the regressions confirms these results. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:337–359, 2007     

Fitting and testing for the implied volatility curve using parametric models

Numerous issues have arisen over the past few decades relating to the implied volatility smile in the options market; however, the extant literature reveals that relatively little effort has thus far been placed into comparing the various implied volatility models, essentially as a result of the lack of any theoretical foundation on which to base such comparative analysis. In this study, we use a comprehensive options database and employ methods of combining the various hypothesis tests to compare the different implied volatility models. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to address this issue using combination tests. Our empirical results reveal that the linear piecewise model is the most appropriate model for capturing the implied volatility smile, with additional robustness checks confirming the validity of this finding.     

Cross-dynamics of volatility term structures implied by foreign exchange options

This paper examines the cross-dynamics of volatility term structure slopes implied by foreign exchange options. The empirical findings demonstrate that a few principal components can explain a vast proportion of the variation in volatility term structure slopes across the major exchange rates. Furthermore, the results indicate that the euro is the dominant currency, as the implied volatility term structure of the euro is found to affect all the other volatility term structures, while the term structure of the euro appears to be virtually unaffected by the other currencies. Finally, our results provide evidence of significant nonlinearities in the relationship between the euro and the Swiss franc.     

The information content of implied volatility: Evidence from Australia

This study develops an implied volatility index for the Australian stock market, termed as the AVX, and assesses its information content. The AVX is constructed using S&P/ASX 200 index options with a constant time‐to‐maturity of three months. It is observed that the AVX has a significant negative and asymmetric relationship with S&P/ASX 200 returns. When evaluating the forecasting power of the AVX for future stock market volatility, it is found that the AVX contains important information both in‐sample and out‐of‐sample. In‐sample, the AVX significantly improves the fit of a GJR‐GARCH(1, 1) model. Out‐of‐sample, the AVX significantly outperforms the RiskMetrics approach and the GJR‐GARCH(1, 1) model, with its highest forecasting power at the one‐month forecasting horizon. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 30:134–155, 2010     

Properties and the predictive power of implied volatility in the New Zealand dairy market

This study develops a dairy implied volatility index (DVIX), derived from New Zealand Exchange traded options on whole milk powder (WMP) futures. We document an inverse return–volatility relation which is asymmetric, where increases in WMP futures prices are associated with larger absolute changes in the DVIX than decreases. In sample, the results strongly suggest that the DVIX has a high information content regarding conditional variance and that the inclusion of historical information further improves the predictive power. Out of sample, we find that the DVIX provides substantial information about future realized volatility. We also document that a combination of historical volatility and the DVIX provides the best out-of-sample forecasts.     

The impacts of public news announcements on intraday implied volatility dynamics

We examine the responses of intraday option-implied volatilities to scheduled announcements of macroeconomic indicators. The increase in implied volatility around macroeconomic news announcements is more pronounced for puts than for calls and is stronger for announcements made during trading hours than for those made during nontrading hours. These effects are also more pronounced in the crisis and postcrisis periods than in the precrisis period. Monetary policy announcements have a more substantial impact on volatility than other announcements have, even after controlling for news surprise components. The impact appears to be greater for policy rate hikes than for policy rate cuts.     

Asymmetric pricing of implied systematic volatility in the cross‐section of expected returns

Assuming a symmetric relation between returns and innovations in implied market volatility, Ang, A., Hodrick, R., Xing, Y., and Zhang, X. (2006) find that sensitivities to changes in implied market volatility have a cross‐sectional effect on firm returns. Dennis, P., Mayhew, S., and Stivers, C. (2006), however, find an asymmetric relation between firm‐level returns and implied market volatility innovations. We incorporate this asymmetry into the cross‐sectional relation between sensitivity to volatility innovations and returns. Using both portfolio sorting and firm‐level regressions, we find that sensitivity to VIX innovations is negatively related to returns when volatility is rising, but is unrelated when it is falling. The negative relation is robust to controls for other variables, suggesting only the increase in implied market volatility is a priced risk factor. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 31:34–54, 2011     

Measuring implied volatility: Is an average better? Which average?

Options researchers have argued that by averaging together implied standard deviations, or ISDs, calculated from several options with the same expiry but different strikes, the noise in individual ISDs can be reduced, yielding a better measure of the market's volatility expectation. Various options researchers have suggested different weighting schemes for calculating these averages. In the forecasting literature, econometricians have made the same argument but suggested quite different weighting schemes. Ignoring both literatures, commercial vendors calculate ISD averages using their own weightings. We compare the averages proposed in both the options and econometrics literatures and the averages used by major commercial vendors for the S&P 500 futures options market. Although some averages forecast better than others, we find that the question of the best weighting scheme is of secondary importance. More important is the fact that the ISDs are upward biased measures of expected volatility. Fortunately, this bias is stable over time, so past bias patterns can be used to obtain unbiased volatility forecasts. Once this is done, most ISD averages forecast better than time series and naive models, and the differences between the averages produced by the various proposed weighting schemes are small. © 2002 Wiley Publications, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:811–837, 2002     

Stock return dynamics,option volume,and the information content of implied volatility

This article reports new empirical results on the information content of implied volatility, with respect to modeling and forecasting the volatility of individual firm returns. The 50 firms with the highest option volume on the Chicago Board Options Exchange between 1988 and 1995 are examined. First, the results indicate that the ability of implied volatility to subsume all relevant information about conditional variance depends on option trading volume. For the most active options in the sample, implied volatility reliably outperforms GARCH and subsumes all information in return shocks beyond the first lag. For these active options, implied volatility performs substantially better than indicated by the prior results of Lamoureux and Lastrapes ( 1993 ), despite significant methodological improvements in the time‐series volatility models in this study including the use of high‐frequency intraday return shocks. For the lower option‐volume firms in the sample, the performance of implied volatility deteriorates relative to time‐series volatility models. Finally, compared to a time‐series approach, the implied volatility of equity index options provides reliable incremental information about future firm‐level volatility. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 23:615–646, 2003     

The information content of option implied volatility surrounding the 1997 Hong Kong stock market crash

This study examines the information conveyed by options and examines their implied volatility at the time of the 1997 Hong Kong stock market crash. The author determines the efficiency of implied volatility as a predictor of future volatility by comparing it to other leading indicator candidates. These include volume and open interest of index options and futures, as well as the arbitrage basis of index futures. Using monthly, nonoverlapping data, the study reveals that implied volatility is superior to those variables in forecasting future realized volatility. The study also demonstrates that a simple signal extraction model could have produced useful warning signals prior to periods of extreme volatility. These results indicate that the options market is highly efficient informationally. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:555–574, 2007