With increasing appreciation of the fact that stock return variance is stochastic and variance risk is heavily priced, the industry has created a series of variance derivative products to span variance risk. The variance swap contract is the most actively traded of these products. It pays at...

We study the risk dynamics and pricing in international economies through a joint analysis of the time-series returns and option prices on three equity indexes underlying three economies: the Samp;P 500 Index of the United States, the FTSE 100 Index of the United Kingdom, and the Nikkei-225...

We propose a direct and robust method for quantifying the variance risk premium on financial assets. We theoretically and numerically show that the risk-neutral expected value of the return variance, also known as the variance swap rate, is well approximated by the value of a particular...

Levy processes can capture the behaviors of return innovations on a full range of financial securities. Applying stochastic time changes to the Levy processes randomizes the clock on which the processes run, thus generating stochastic volatilities and stochastic higher return moments. Therefore,...

We propose a dynamically consistent framework that allows joint valuation and estimation of stock options and credit default swaps written on the same reference company. We model default as controlled by a Poisson process with a stochastic default arrival rate. When default occurs, the stock...

Using sovereign CDS spreads and currency option data for Mexico and Brazil, we document that CDS spreads covary with both the currency option implied volatility and the slope of the implied volatility curve in moneyness. We propose a joint valuation framework, in which currency return variance...

We document the behavior of over-the-counter currency option prices across moneyness, maturity, and calendar time on two of the most actively traded currency pairs over the past eight years. We find that on any given date, the conditional risk-neutral distribution of currency returns can show...

In 1993, the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) introduced the CBOE Volatility Index. This index has become the de facto benchmark for stock market volatility. On September 22, 2003, the CBOE revamped the definition and calculation of the volatility index, and back-calculated the new index...

With a portfolio of options on Samp;P 500 index, the Chicago Board of Options Exchange constructs a volatility index named VIX that approximates the 30-day return variance swap rate on the index. Using high-frequency return data, researchers have proposed various return quadratic variation...

From a large options data set on major equity indexes across the world, we find that worldwide, implied volatilities of options on equity indexes exhibit strikingly similar behaviors. When plotted against moneyness, implied volatilities show a heavily skewed smirk pattern, implying that...