In this paper we develop the rst estimator of the covariance matrix that relies solely onforward-looking information. This estimator only uses price information from a cross-sectionof plain-vanilla options. In an out-of-sample study for US blue-chip stocks we show that aminimum-variance strategy...

This paper conducts a comprehensive asset pricing study based on a unique dataset for theGerman stock market. For the period 1963 to 2006 we show that value characteristics andmomentum explain the cross-section of stock returns. Corresponding factor portfolios havesignificant premiums across...

In this paper, we investigate the pricing of Japanese yen interest rate swaps during the period 1990-96. We obtain measures of the spreads of the swap rates over comparable Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) for different maturities and analyze the relationship between the swap spreads and credit...