A UNIFIED PRESENTATION OF COMPETITION ANALYSIS IN TWO-SIDED MARKETS

The goal of this paper is to present quantitative tools to manage competition policy analysis in two-sided platforms, based on a common framework for transaction and non-transaction platforms. We explore tools for relevant market definition [Critical Loss Analysis and a small but significant non-transitory increase in price (SSNIP) test], unilateral effects indicators [Upward Pricing Pressure (UPP) and Gross Upward Pricing Pressure Index (GUPPI)] and tests for exclusionary practices. We review dispersed results in the literature and fill the gaps where appropriate. We highlight the required changes from the usual one-sided market framework and tools. While discussions of antitrust tools can be found in specialized forums devoted to advances in competition policy analysis, we organize the material in an integrated framework.     

美国量化宽松政策对亚太新兴市场国家的影响

量化宽松是美联储在通货紧缩下所采取的一种直接创造货币、扩大央行资产负债表规模的非传统货币政策。量化宽松将给我国等新兴市场国家造成较大的负面效果,建议采取临时性资本管制、针对性量化政策、建立区域货币离岸市场、加快经济结构转型等对策来应对。     

美联储五次量化宽松货币政策盘点

伴随着美联储第一轮量化宽松货币政策结束,新一轮量化宽松货币政策业已启动,该政策工具的使用已呈现出针对性、超常规和高度宽松的特征,同时,该工具的政策机制传导出正面和负面效应,也给中国经济带来诸多考验。     

OECD国家企业年金投资监管模式研究及对我国的借鉴

目前我国企业年金投资监管模式为定量监管模式,制约了企业年金投资收益的增长空间,使得投资风险集中,投资组合缺乏差异。本文通过对OECD国家的企业年金投资监管模式进行绩效评价与趋势分析,给出了我国企业年金投资监管模式选择的建议。     

Pricing equity options everywhere

Finite difference methods are a popular technique for pricing American options. Since their introduction to finance by Brennan and Schwartz their use has spread from vanilla calls and puts on one stock to path-dependent and exotic options on multiple assets. Despite the breadth of the problems they have been applied to, and the increased sophistication of some of the newer techniques, most approaches to pricing equity options have not adequately addressed the issues of unbounded computational domains and divergent diffusion coefficients. In this article it is shown that these two problems are related and can be overcome using multiple grids. This new technique allows options to be priced for all values of the underlying, and is illustrated using standard put options and the call on the maximum of two stocks. For the latter contract, I also derive a characterization of the asymptotic continuation region in terms of a one-dimensional option pricing problem, and give analytic formulae for the perpetual case.     

Modelling bonds and credit default swaps using a structural model with contagion

This paper develops a two-dimensional structural framework for valuing credit default swaps and corporate bonds in the presence of default contagion. Modelling the values of related firms as correlated geometric Brownian motions with exponential default barriers, analytical formulae are obtained for both credit default swap spreads and corporate bond yields. The credit dependence structure is influenced by both a longer-term correlation structure as well as by the possibility of default contagion. In this way, the model is able to generate a diverse range of shapes for the term structure of credit spreads using realistic values for input parameters.     

Volatility forecasts and at-the-money implied volatility: a multi-component ARCH approach and its relation to market models

This article explores the relationships between several forecasts for the volatility built from multi-scale linear ARCH processes, and linear market models for the forward variance. This shows that the structures of the forecast equations are identical, but with different dependencies on the forecast horizon. The process equations for the forward variance are induced by the process equations for an ARCH model, but postulated in a market model. In the ARCH case, they are different from the usual diffusive type. The conceptual differences between both approaches and their implication for volatility forecasts are analysed. The volatility forecast is compared with the realized volatility (the volatility that will occur between date t and t + ΔT), and the implied volatility (corresponding to an at-the-money option with expiry at t + ΔT). For the ARCH forecasts, the parameters are set a priori. An empirical analysis across multiple time horizons ΔT shows that a forecast provided by an I-GARCH(1) process (one time scale) does not capture correctly the dynamics of the realized volatility. An I-GARCH(2) process (two time scales, similar to GARCH(1,1)) is better, while a long-memory LM-ARCH process (multiple time scales) replicates correctly the dynamics of the implied and realized volatilities and delivers consistently good forecasts for the realized volatility.     

Optimal high-frequency trading with limit and market orders

We propose a framework for studying optimal market-making policies in a limit order book (LOB). The bid–ask spread of the LOB is modeled by a tick-valued continuous-time Markov chain. We consider a small agent who continuously submits limit buy/sell orders at best bid/ask quotes, and may also set limit orders at best bid (resp. ask) plus (resp. minus) a tick for obtaining execution order priority, which is a crucial issue in high-frequency trading. The agent faces an execution risk since her limit orders are executed only when they meet counterpart market orders. She is also subject to inventory risk due to price volatility when holding the risky asset. The agent can then also choose to trade with market orders, and therefore obtain immediate execution, but at a less favorable price. The objective of the market maker is to maximize her expected utility from revenue over a short-term horizon by a trade-off between limit and market orders, while controlling her inventory position. This is formulated as a mixed regime switching regular/impulse control problem that we characterize in terms of a quasi-variational system by dynamic programming methods. Calibration procedures are derived for estimating the transition matrix and intensity parameters for the spread and for Cox processes modelling the execution of limit orders. We provide an explicit backward splitting scheme for solving the problem and show how it can be reduced to a system of simple equations involving only the inventory and spread variables. Several computational tests are performed both on simulated and real data, and illustrate the impact and profit when considering execution priority in limit orders and market orders.     

VIX futures term structure and the expectations hypothesis

Tests of the expectations hypothesis reveal that the slope of the VIX futures term structure predicts the direction but not the magnitude of the evolution of the short-end of the curve, but predicts neither the direction nor the magnitude of short-term changes in the long-end of the curve. Relative value seeking spread trades, constructed to exploit such violations, deliver excess returns with annualized Sharpe ratios equal or greater than those of volatility-writing strategies deployed by VIX ETN's for a majority of the 32 spread trade combinations tested. I demonstrate that profits from beta-neutral variations of the spread trades, which are not compensation for taking on equity downside risk by design, are propagated by inflows of capital into VIX futures markets, after controlling for factors that measure changes in the availability of hedge fund capital, risk appetite, and momentum. At the heart of profits, and by extension the term structure anomalies, is a disproportionally elevated basis propagated by long VIX demand that enters the futures market through ETN channels.     

美联储加速退出量化宽松货币政策的影响及对我国的启示

受2013年6月美联储表态将逐步退出量化宽松货币政策的行为及其预期的影响,全球金融市场发生了剧烈地动荡,而美联储退出量化宽松货币政策的步伐却并未由此止步.这不仅会作用于美国的经济增长路径,同时也必将会使得以中国为代表的新兴市场经济体国家遭受美联储退出量化宽松货币政策的外溢性风险.文章就当前美联储退出QE预期及步伐加速的背景下,分析了美联储退出QE对全球经济的影响,以及从实体经济传导和金融市场传导层面探讨了对我国经济的影响,并认为美联储退出QE对我国而言既是一种挑战,也是一种机遇,并最终提出了以“保持稳定”为目标的防范美联储退出量化宽松货币政策溢出风险的对策建议.