Optimal hedge ratios and alternative hedging strategies in the presence of cointegrated time-varying risks

This paper utilizes the inter-temporal relationship between the FTSE-100 stock index and its futures price level between 1992 and 1999 to examine the characteristics of several minimum variance hedge ratios and the performances of several alternative hedging strategies for dynamic portfolio management in the presence of cointegrated time-varying risks. Earlier studies neglected the importance of cointegration between the two variables which resulted in biased estimates. These studies, in general, also assume that the hedging period is the same as the estimation time interval. This paper also looks at several key issues when the holding period is longer than the estimation period, such as the construction of optimal minimum variance hedge ratios, and the trade-off between transaction costs and risk reduction.     

期货最优套期保值比率研究评述

套期保值、价格发现、资产配置是期货市场的三大基本职能。而在这三种职能中，最为重要的是套期保值，它是期货市场得以生存和发展的关键动因。在国内外套期保值研究中，最优套期保值比率的估计是套期保值研究最为核心的问题。而运用期货套期保值理论进行实践更是随着套期保值比率估计模型的不断优化、完善而向前发展的，本文通过对国内外套期保值研究相关文献进行分类，整理，综述，梳理出最优套期保值比率估计的研究思路和相关实证技术路线，概括出国内外最优套保比率的研究框架，以此来向国内相关研究学者指出未来的进一步研究方向，同时对国内期货交易主体进行套期保值操作提供了估计模型的选择建议。     

Efficiency tests with overlapping data: an application to the currency options market

This paper presents the results of an empirical study into the efficiency of the currency options market. The methodology derives from a simple model often applied to the spot and forward markets for foreign exchange. It relates the historic volatility of the underlying asset to the implied volatility of an option on the underlying at a specified prior time and then proceeds to test obvious hypotheses about the values of the coefficients. The study uses panel regression to address the problem of overlapping data which leads to dependence between observations. It also uses volatility data directly quoted on the market in order to avoid the biases which may occur when ‘backing out’ volatility from specific option pricing models. In general, the evidence rejects the hypothesis that the currency option market is efficient. This suggests that implied volatility is not the best predictor of future exchange rate volatility and should not be used without modification: the models presented in this paper could be a way of producing revised forecasts.     

Why do farmers have so little interest in futures markets?

A farm financial model with leverage and investment in two farm enterprises is specified. The model is extended to incorporate futures hedging and the Separation Theorem is used to show that optimal hedging is zero. The assumption of a risk‐free asset is relaxed and, while this leads to a violation of the Separation Theorem, the result that optimal hedging is zero is maintained providing that futures markets are efficient. It is concluded that if capital markets are efficient then farmers will have little interest in futures markets except to speculate.     

外汇风险防范方法初探

随着对外开放的不断深入，我国与世界各国的经济贸易活动日趋活跃，而国际金融市场汇率变动无常，给国际贸易的发展带来了一定的困难．因此，如何对外汇风险，进行有效地防范，日益成为广大外贸工作者迫切关心的问题。本文就是在阐述了外汇风险的种类的基础上，探讨了外汇风险防范的一些方法，旨在与同仁共同切磋，使各外贸经济主体尽可能避免或减少外汇风险带来的损失。     

外汇风险对冲和公司价值:基于中国跨国公司的实证研究

2005年7月人民币汇改以来,人民币升值,特别是相对于美元大幅升值,其不利影响开始显现,我国不少跨国公司使用外汇衍生品来对冲人民币汇率升值带来的风险。然而,尽管不少国外学者对金融衍生品使用和公司价值的关系进行了深入研究,但以中国公司为样本的研究仍很少见。中信泰富等衍生品投机事件和2008年金融危机的发生使得我国学者对金融衍生工具的作用和性质争议不断,使用外汇衍生品对冲外汇风险是否增加公司价值仍是一个有待深入研究的问题。本文基于2007年至2009年968家中国跨国公司的数据,实证检验了外汇衍生品使用和公司价值的关系,发现外汇衍生品使用带来了约10%的价值溢价,这一重要发现和基于发达国家的不少研究相一致。该研究成果支持了外汇衍生品在汇率风险管理中的积极作用和加快发展我国外汇衍生品市场特别是交易所市场以掌握人民币汇率定价权的重要性和紧迫性。     

对冲基金、对冲策略以及市场中性

本文梳理了对冲基金的概念、特征及对冲策略,指出市场中性是这些对冲策略普遍存在的内在一致性要求。在此基础上,本文进一步讨论了市场中性策略的收益来源,分析了市场中性策略的做空优势,指出对冲策略拓宽了传统组合边界。     

Hedging labor income risk

We use a detailed panel data set of Swedish households to investigate the relation between their labor income risk and financial investment decisions. In particular, we relate changes in wage volatility to changes in the portfolio holdings for households that switched industries between 1999 and 2002. We find that households do adjust their portfolio holdings when switching jobs, which is consistent with the idea that households hedge their human capital risk in the stock market. The results are statistically and economically significant. A household going from an industry with low wage volatility to one with high volatility ceteris paribus decreases its portfolio share of risky assets by up to 35%, or $15,575.     

Gold and US sectoral stocks during COVID-19 pandemic

In this study, we examine the hedging relationship between gold and US sectoral stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic. We employ a multivariate volatility framework, which accounts for salient features of the series in the computation of optimal weights and optimal hedging ratios. We find evidence of hedging effectiveness between gold and sectoral stocks, albeit with lower performance, during the pandemic. Overall, including gold in a stock portfolio could provide a valuable asset class that can improve the risk-adjusted performance of stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we find that the estimated portfolio weights and hedge ratios are sensitive to structural breaks, and ignoring the breaks can lead to overestimation of the hedging effectiveness of gold for US sectoral stocks. Since the analysis involves sectoral stock data, we believe that any investor in the US stock market that seeks to maximize risk-adjusted returns is likely to find the results useful when making investment decisions during the pandemic.