Analysing financial contagion and asymmetric market dependence with volatility indices via copulas

This paper explores the cross-market dependence between five popular equity indices (S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, DAX 30, FTSE 100, and Nikkei 225), and their corresponding volatility indices (VIX, VXN, VDAX, VFTSE, and VXJ). In particular, we propose a dynamic mixed copula approach which is able to capture the time-varying tail dependence coefficient (TDC). The findings indicate the existence of financial contagion and significant asymmetric TDCs for major international equity markets. In some situations, although contagion cannot be clearly detected by stock index movements, it can be captured by dependence between volatility indices. The results imply that contagion is not only reflected in the first moment of index returns, but also the second moment, i.e. the volatility. Results also show that dependence between volatility indices is more easily influenced by financial shocks and reflects the instantaneous information faster than the stock market indices.     

The impacts of index rebalancing and their implications: Some new evidence from Japan

This study investigates the Nikkei 225 rebalancing. Unlike those for changes in the S&P 500, the price effects are permanent for both additions and deletions despite significant price reversals around both the announcement and effective days. The permanent price effects are shown to be consistent with the imperfect substitute hypothesis. Furthermore, the ‘arbitrage game’, as documented for the S&P additions, is played with both the Nikkei 225 additions and deletions. Lastly, consistent with its higher popularity, the Nikkei 225 changes induce more pronounced price and volume effects, more arbitrage trading, but less long-term volume effects than the Nikkei 500 reshuffles.     

Price discovery and changes in regimes for stock index futures

In this paper, we propose a cointegration system that considers regime shifts in the stock index futures markets. Meanwhile, three such markets—the S&P, the CAC 40, and the Nikkei 225 index futures—are examined using the proposed model. The empirical evidence shows that the cointegration system with consideration of regime shifts performs better than the usual cointegration system without considering regime shifts. Moreover, the three futures markets exhibit different patterns for distinct regimes.     

Dynamic linkages between the center and periphery in international stock markets

This paper examines the dynamic linkages between the equity market of US representing the center and emerging markets using the Granger-causality test. The findings show that causality runs from the S&P500 to the stock prices of the 15 emerging markets but not vice versa.     

Transmission of Stock Returns and Volatility between the U.S. and Japan: Evidence from the Stock Index Futures Markets

In this paper, we examine the nature of transmission of stock returns and volatility between the U.S. and Japanese stock markets using futures prices on the S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 stock indexes. We use stock index futures prices to mitigate the stale quote problem found in the spot index prices and to obtain more robust results. By employing a two-step GARCH approach, we find that there are unidirectional contemporaneous return and volatility spillovers from the U.S. to Japan. Furthermore, the U.S.'s influence on Japan in returns is approximately four times as large as the other way around. Finally, our results show no significant lagged spillover effects in both returns and volatility from the Osaka market to the Chicago market, while a significant lagged volatility spillover is observed from the U.S. to Japan. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Does social network sentiment influence the relationship between the S&P 500 and gold returns?

This study explored the relationship between investor sentiment (extracted from the StockTwits social network), the S&P 500 Index and gold returns. We investigated bilateral causality between gold prices and S&P 500 prices, the power of investor sentiment and gold returns to predict S&P 500 returns, and the influence of gold returns on S&P 500 volatility. We also considered whether the influence of sentiment varies according to the user's degree of experience. We considered the sentiment of messages that mentioned the S&P 500 Index and that users posted between 2012 and 2016. Granger causality analysis, ARIMA models and GARCH models were used for predicting S&P 500 Index returns and S&P 500 volatility. We observed a causal relationship between gold price and the S&P 500 Index. Our results also suggest that sentiment and gold returns predict S&P 500 Index returns. Finally, we observed that gold returns influence S&P 500 volatility and that the sentiment of experienced users affects S&P 500 returns.     

Relationship between gold and stock markets during the global financial crisis: Evidence from nonlinear causality tests

This paper investigates the nonlinear dynamic co-movements between gold returns, stock market returns and stock market volatility during the recent global financial crisis for the UK (FTSE 100), the US (S&P 500) and Japan (Nikkei 225). Initially, the bivariate dynamic relationships between i) gold returns and stock market returns and ii) gold returns and stock market volatility are tested; both of these relationships are further investigated in the multivariate nonlinear settings by including changes in the three-month LIBOR rates. In this paper correlation integrals based on the bivariate model show significant evidence of nonlinear feedback effect among the variables during the financial crisis period for all the countries understudy. Very limited evidence of significant feedback is found during the pre-crisis period. Results from the multivariate tests including changes in the LIBOR rates provide results similar to the bivariate results. These results imply that gold may not perform well as a safe haven during the financial crisis period due to the bidirectional interdependence between gold returns and, stock returns as well as stock market volatility. However, gold may be used as a hedge against stock market returns and volatility in stable financial conditions.     

Fractional integration in daily stock market indexes

I use parametric and semiparametric methods to test for the order of integration in stock market indexes. The results, which are based on the EOE (Amsterdam), DAX (Frankfurt), Hang Seng (Hong Kong), FTSE100 (London), S&P500 (New York), CAC40 (Paris), Singapore All Shares, and the Japanese Nikkei, show that in almost all of the series the unit root hypothesis cannot be rejected. The Hang Seng and the Singapore All Shares seem to be the most nonstationary series with orders of integration higher than one, and the S&P500 is the less nonstationary series, with values smaller than one and showing mean reversion.     

The recovery of global stock markets indices after impacts due to pandemics

The COVID-19 brings back the debate about the impact of disease outbreaks in economies and financial markets. The error correction terms (ECT) and cointegration processing tools have been applied in studies for identifying possible transmission mechanisms between distinct time series. This paper adopts the vector error correction model (VECM) to investigate the dynamic coupling between the pandemics (e.g., the COVID-19, EBOLA, MERS and SARS) and the evolution of key stocks exchange indices (e.g., Dow-Jones, S&P 500, EuroStoxx, DAX, CAC, Nikkei, HSI, Kospi, S&P ASX, Nifty and Ibov). The results show that the shocks caused by the diseases significantly affected the markets. Nonetheless, except for the COVID-19, the stock exchange indices reveal a sustained and fast recovering when an identical length time window of 79 days is analyzed. In addition, our findings contribute to point a higher volatility for all financial indices during the COVID-19, a strong impact over the Ibov-Brazil and its poor recover when compared to the other indices.     

Further insights on the relationship between SP500, VIX and volume: a new asymmetric causality test1

In the aim to explore the complex relationships between S&P500, VIX and volume we introduce a Granger causality test using the nonlinear statistic of Asymmetric Partial Transfer Entropy (APTE). Through a simulation exercise, it arises that the APTE offers precise information on the nature of the connectivity. Our empirical findings concretize the information flow that links volume, S&P500 and VIX, and merge the leverage effect and the asymmetric stock return-volume relationship into a unified framework of analysis. More specifically, when we condition on the tails, the detected causal channel provides empirical validation of the noise trading contribution to large swings in financial markets, because of the increase of trading volume and the subsequent worsening ability of market prices to adjust to new information.     

Are stock markets really efficient? Evidence of the adaptive market hypothesis

This study examines the adaptive market hypothesis in the S&P500, FTSE100, NIKKEI225 and EURO STOXX 50 by testing for stock return predictability using daily data from January 1990 to May 2014. We apply three bootstrapped versions of the variance ratio test to the raw stock returns and also whiten the returns through an AR-GARCH process to study the nonlinear predictability after accounting for conditional heteroscedasticity through the BDS test. We evaluate the time-varying return predictability by applying these tests to fixed-length moving subsample windows and also examine whether there is a relationship between the level of predictability in stock returns and market conditions. The results show that there are periods of statistically significant return predictability, but also episodes of no statistically significant predictability in stock returns. We also find that certain market conditions are statistically significantly related to predictability in certain markets but each market interacts differently with the different market conditions. Therefore our findings suggest that return predictability in stock markets does vary over time in a manner consistent with the adaptive market hypothesis and that each market adapts differently to certain market conditions. Consequently our findings suggest that investors should view each market independently since different markets experience contrasting levels of predictability, which are related to market conditions.     

Financial contagion,spillovers and causality in the Markov switching framework

In this paper, we introduce the concept of causality in the Markov switching framework into the analysis of financial inter-market dependencies. We extend the methodology of testing for financial spillovers between capital markets by explicitly defining contagion, spillovers and independence, and providing statistics to test for the existence of causality. We apply the methodology to stock index returns on the Japanese (Nikkei 225) and the Hong Kong (HSI) markets during the Asian crisis and find no evidence of contagion between the markets, but strong evidence of feedback spillovers between them.     

The Causal Relationship Between Real Estate and Stock Markets

This paper examines the dynamic relationship that exists between the US real estate and S&P 500 stock markets between the years of 1972 to 1998. This is achieved by conducting both linear and nonlinear causality tests. The results from these tests provide a number of interesting observations which primarily show linear relationships to be spuriously affected by structural shifts which are inherent within the data. Linear test results generally show a uni-directional relationship to exist from the real estate market to the stock market. However, these results are not consistent with financial theory and for all sub-samples of the data. In contrast, the nonlinear causality test shows a strong unidirectional relationship running from the stock market to the real estate market, and is consistent in the presence of any structural breaks.     

S&P 500 trading strategies and stock betas

This paper shows that S&P 500 stock betas are overstatedand the non-S&P 500 stock betas are understated becauseof liquidity price effects caused by the S&P 500 tradingstrategies. The daily and weekly betas of stocks added to theS&P 500 index during 1985-1989 increase, on average, by0.211 and 0.130. The difference between monthly betas of otherwisesimilar S&P 500 and non-S&P 500 stocks also equals 0.125during this period. Some of these increases can be explainedby the reduced nonsynchroneity of S&P 500 stock prices,but the remaining increases are explained by the price pressureor excess volatility caused by the S&P 500 trading strategies.I estimate that the price pressures account for 8.5 percentof the total variance of daily returns of a value-weighted portfolioof NYSE/AMEX stocks. The negative own autocorrelations in S&P500 index returns and the negative cross autocorrelations betweenS&P 500 stock returns provide further evidence consistentwith the price pressure hypothesis.     

Modeling systemic risk and dependence structure between oil and stock markets using a variational mode decomposition-based copula method

This study combines the variational mode decomposition (VMD) method and static and time-varying symmetric and asymmetric copula functions to examine the dependence structure between crude oil prices and major regional developed stock markets (S&P500, stoxx600, DJPI and TSX indexes) during bear, normal and bull markets under different investment horizons. Furthermore, it analyzes the upside and downside short- and long-run risk spillovers between oil and stock markets by quantifying three market risk measures, namely the value at risk (VaR), conditional VaR (CoVaR) and the delta CoVaR (∆CoVaR). The results show that there is a tail dependence between oil and all stock markets for the raw return series. By considering time horizons, we show that there is an average dependence between the considered markets for the short-run horizons. However, the tail dependence is also found for the long-run horizons between the oil and stock markets, with the exception of the S&P500 index which exhibits average dependence with the oil market. Moreover, we find strong evidence of up and down risk asymmetric spillovers from oil to stock markets and vice versa in the short-and long run horizons. Finally, the market risk spillovers are asymmetric over the time and investment horizons.     

Shock around the clock—on the causal relations between international stock markets,the strength of causality and the intensity of shock transmission: an econometric analysis

This paper investigates empirically the interrelationships between the daily stock market returns of the Nikkei 225, DAX and Dow Jones Industrial index. In contrast to former work this paper uses the succession of the markets in time to form different econometric models. In this way it is possible to detect causality not only from the USA to foreign countries but in some cases vice versa. The observation period is October 1985 to October 1997. Analysis of the structural properties leads to the examination of four separated periods. Results for Hosoya’s measure of the strength of causality and impulse response analysis facilitate a dynamic analysis of the causal structure. Increasing influence from NYSE to foreign markets can be shown, whereas influence of the foreign markets on the Dow Jones is decreasing. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Halloween Effect and Japanese Equity Prices: Myth or Exploitable Anomaly

Bouman and Jacobsen (American Economic Review 92(5), 1618–1635, 2002) examine monthly stock returns for major world stock markets and conclude that returns are significantly lower during the May–October periods versus the November–April periods in 36 of 37 markets examined. They argue that, in general, the Halloween strategy outperforms the buy and hold strategy thereby casting doubt on the validity of the efficient market paradigm. More recently, Maberly and Pierce (Econ Journal Watch 1(1), 29–46, 2004) re-examine the evidence for U.S. equity prices and conclude that Bouman and Jacobsen’s results are not robust to alternative model specifications. Extending prior research, this paper examines the robustness of the Halloween strategy to alternative model specifications for Japanese equity prices. The Halloween effect is concentrated in the period prior to the introduction of Nikkei 225 index futures in September 1986. After the internationalization of Japanese financial markets in the mid-1980s, the Halloween effect disappears.JEL classification: G14, G15     

Lack of consumer confidence and stock returns

This paper investigates the link between the lack of consumer confidence and stock returns during market fluctuations. Using a Markov-switching framework, we first focus on whether the shock to consumer confidence has asymmetric effects on stock returns. We also examine whether the decreased confidence pushes the stock market into bear territory. Empirical evidence using monthly returns on Standard & Poor's S&P 500 price index suggests that market pessimism has larger impacts on stock returns during bear markets. Moreover, the lack of consumer confidence leads to a higher probability of switching to a bear market regime.     

Can we forecast the implied volatility surface dynamics of equity options? Predictability and economic value tests

We examine whether the dynamics of the implied volatility surface of individual equity options contains exploitable predictability patterns. Predictability in implied volatilities is expected due to the learning behavior of agents in option markets. In particular, we explore the possibility that the dynamics of the implied volatility surface of individual stocks may be associated with movements in the volatility surface of S&P 500 index options. We present evidence of strong predictable features in the cross-section of equity options and of dynamic linkages between the volatility surfaces of equity and S&P 500 index options. Moreover, time-variation in stock option volatility surfaces is best predicted by incorporating information from the dynamics in the surface of S&P 500 options. We analyze the economic value of such dynamic patterns using strategies that trade straddle and delta-hedged portfolios, and find that before transaction costs such strategies produce abnormal risk-adjusted returns.     

Extreme spectral risk measures: An application to futures clearinghouse margin requirements

This paper applies the extreme-value (EV) generalised pareto distribution to the extreme tails of the return distributions for the S&P500, FT100, DAX, Hang Seng, and Nikkei225 futures contracts. It then uses tail estimators from these contracts to estimate spectral risk measures, which are coherent risk measures that reflect a user’s risk-aversion function. It compares these to VaR and expected shortfall (ES) risk measures, and compares the precision of their estimators. It also discusses the usefulness of these risk measures in the context of clearinghouses setting initial margin requirements, and compares these to the SPAN measures typically used.