Proposals to introduce derivatives whose payouts are explicitly linked to the volatility of an underlying asset have been around for some time. In response to these proposals, a few papers have tried to develop valuation formulae for volatility derivatives—derivatives that essentially help...

This paper focuses on the recently developing financial derivatives markets, and examines the usefulness of option prices as an information variable for monetary policy implementation. A set of option prices provides us with information on the whole probability distribution of the future values...

We present a model in which the addition of an option market leads to sunspot equilibria in an economy which has no sunspot equilibrium before the market is introduced. This phenomenon occurs because the payoff of an option contract is contingent upon market prices, and while prices are taken as...

A development of a simple model in which interest rate claims are priced in the Heath-Jarrow-Morton paradigm and so incorporate full information on the term structure. The volatility structure for forward rates is humped and includes as a special case the exponentially dampened volatility...

Market participants and policymakers closely monitor movements in the yield curve for information about future economic fundamentals. In several recent episodes, however, disruptions to market liquidity have affected the short-term dynamics of the curve independently of fundamentals. This...

As short-term interest rates have declined over the past several years, investors have increasingly sought higher yielding investment vehicles. The index amortizing rate (IAR) swap is one of several new instruments that have been developed in response to this investor demand for yield...

Index amortizing rate (IAR) swaps have proved difficult to price because of the complexity of their embedded options. Since these options depend on the path of interest rates, pricing requires a model of interest rate movements. This article uses a simple interest rate model to illustrate the...