We examine stock return predictability of "Out-of-The-Money (OTM) put-to-OTM call trading volume ratio" (OTMPC). Our numerical analysis predicts that informed investors hardly write OTM options because the leverage effect is not sufficient to compensate for transaction costs. OTMPC, thus,...

We document the outcome of an options decimalization pilot on Canada's derivatives exchange. Decimalization improves measures of liquidity and price efficiency. The impact differs by the moneyness of an option and is greatest for out-of-the-money options. In contrast with equity studies,...

We examine whether option prices correct for predictable bias in stock prices associated with accounting anomalies. Evidence from put-call parity violations suggests that they do not. Rather, option prices accurately track contemporaneous stock prices. Further analysis suggests that high costs...

We document widespread violations of stochastic dominance in the one-month S&P 500 index options market over the period 1986-2002. These violations imply that a trader can improve her expected utility by engaging in a zero-net-cost trade. We allow the market to be incomplete and also imperfect...

Attempted dynamic replication based valuation of equity options is analyzed using the Optimal Hedge Monte-Carlo (OHMC) method. Detailed here are (1) the option hedging strategy and its costs; (2) irreducible hedging errors associated with realistically fat-tailed & asymmetric return...

Execution protocols for complex options orders allow market participants to execute multi-leg trades such as verticals, calendars, straddles, strangles, and others as a single trade at a net price. The costs to execute complex orders are significantly lower than the costs of simple orders. Part...

This paper documents the fact that in options markets, the (percentage) implied volatility bid-ask spread increases at an increasing rate as the option's maturity date approaches. To explain this stylized fact, this paper provides a market microstructure model for the bid-ask spread in options...

I show that the inventory risk faced by market-makers has a first-order effect on option prices. I introduce a simple approach that decomposes the price impact of trades into inventory risk and asymmetric information components. While both components are large for option trades, the inventory...

We document both theoretically and empirically a major dependence in both the Information Shares (IS) and Component Shares (CS) approaches to the estimation of the price discovery metrics on the errors arising out of the inversion method of the option value to find the implied stock price. We...

In this study, we derive a CDS implied equity volatility index from highly liquid one-year contracts in the Eurozone, and for the inclusive period 2008-2014. We analyze the relationship between this volatility index and the VSTOXX 12M within a fractionally cointegrated vector autoregressive...