We offer a novel approach for solving optimal price adjustment problems, when the underlying process is a Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) process. Our approach relies on characterizing the cumulative cost of deviation and the cost of adjusting price until the hitting time of the lower or upper...

The value of digital options (both European and American types) can have an inverse-U shape relationship with the volatility of the underlying process! This seemingly counterintuitive proposition is driven by a particular feature of Maringale processes bounded from below (including both the...

We investigate the maturity-structure of roll strategy returns in the energy futures markets. Our innovation is to report and analyze the risk/return profile, the Sharpe ratio, and the asset pricing loadings of rollover strategies based on futures contracts of the same underlying commodity but...

Using multiple econometrics methods, this paper examines the cointegration and causality relationships between the futures prices of gasoline and the spot prices of two major types of crude oil (i.e. WTI and Brent). The existence of cointegration between prices in adjacent markets, crude oil...

The value of a representative ethanol producer that benefits from both low and high gasoline prices is modeled. Ethanol producers make a modest competitive profit in the mandate-induced region of production. A low price of gasoline increases the demand for blend ethanol and consequently...

We offer a continuous-time contingent claims valuation framework to quantify the tax shield value of US mortgage interest deduction (MID) under uncertainty. We identify non-linear forms (both convex and concave regions) in the pay-off of MID, and discuss the implications for optimal mortgage...

Internet search activity data has been widely used as an instrument to approximate trader attention in different markets. This method has proven effective in predicting market indices in the short-term. However, little attention has been paid to comparing various search keywords and finding the...

Should oil-rich countries aggressively move toward downstream and invest in the oil refinery industry? This is a crucial energy policy question for such economies. We offer theoretical models for a vertical integration strategy (i.e. downstream investment) within an oil-producing economy. The...