We study an investor’s asset allocation problem with a recursive utility and with tradable volatility that follows a 2-factor stochastic volatility model. Consistent with previous findings under the additive utility, we show that the investor can benefit substantially from volatility trading...

In this paper, we analyze the usefulness of technical analysis, specifically the widely employed moving average trading rule from an asset allocation perspective. We show that, when stock returns are predictable, technical analysis adds value to commonly used allocation rules that invest fixed...

VIX futures are exchange‐traded contracts on a future volatility index (VIX) level derived from a basket of S&P 500 (SPX) stock index options. The authors posit a stochastic variance model of VIX time evolution, and develop an expression for VIX futures. Free parameters are estimated from...

In this study we empirically study the variance term structure using volatility index (VIX) futures market. We first derive a new pricing framework for VIX futures, which is convenient to study variance term structure dynamics. We construct five models and use Kalman filter and maximum...

We construct a statistical model for the term-structure of implied volatilities of currency options based on daily historical data for 13 currency pairs over a 19-month period. We examine the joint evolution of 1 month, 2 month, 3 month, 6 month and 1 year at-the-money (50 δ) options in all the...

Using no arbitrage principle, we derive a relation between the drift term of risk-neutral dynamics for instantaneous variance and the term structure of forward variance. We show that the forward variance curve can be derived from options market. Based on the variance term structure, we derive a...

In this paper, we construct a new variance bound on any stochastic discount factor (SDF) of the form m = m(x), with x being a vector of state variables, which tightens the well-known Hansen-Jagannathan bound by a ratio of one over the multiple correlation coefficient between x and the standard...

We provide a new upper bound on the R-squared of a predictive regression of stock returns on predictable variables, tightening substantially Ross's (2005) bound. An empirical application illustrates that while Ross's bound is not binding, our bound does.

The modern portfolio theory pioneered by Markowitz (1952) is widely used in practice and extensively taught to MBAs. However, the estimated Markowitz portfolio rule and most of its extensions not only underperform the naive 1/N rule (that invests equally across N assets) in simulations, but also...

This paper characterizes the rate of convergence of discrete-time multinomial option prices. We show that the rate of convergence depends on the smoothness of option payoff functions, and is much lower than commonly believed because option payoff functions are often of all-or-nothing type and...