A key issue in understanding option pricing is the response of option implied volatility to macro-economic announcements. We use high frequency data on ASX SPI 200 Index Options to examine the response of option implied volatility, as well as higher moments of the underlying return distribution,...

This paper addresses the question of how to measure market participants’ intra-day risk-neutral expectations. In contrast to widely used quotes data, we present a novel step-by-step approach to estimate intra-day risk-neutral densities (RND) by only using option trades data. Based on a unique...

We study an option pricing framework that accounts for the price impact of an earnings announcement (EA), and analyze the behavior of the implied volatility surface prior to the event. On each known announcement date, we introduce a random jump to the stock price. Applying this idea to extend...

This study examines the effect of option volume relative to stock volume (O/S) on market response to earnings surprises. The market reaction per unit of earnings surprise is lower for firms that have high O/S prior to earnings announcement than for firms with low O/S prior to earnings...

Prior research documents that volatility spreads predict stock returns. If the trading activity of informed investors is an important driver of volatility spreads, then the predictability of stock returns should be more pronounced during major information events. This paper investigates whether...

On September 17, 2009, Boston Private Financial Holdings (BPFH) sold its Coral Gables, Florida based Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust subsidiary for $93 million. On October 27, 2009, Scott Rothstein fled to Morocco on a private jet before turning himself in to authorities. Mr. Rothstein has...

The Post-Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) anomaly refers to the tendency of stock prices to continue drifting in the same direction as earnings surprises well through the subsequent earnings announcements; ignoring the autocorrelations in extreme earnings surprises across adjacent quarters....

The study introduces empirical evidence that there are statistically significant relationships between intensity of upcoming aggregate merger activity and the present values of the factors HML and SMB in the Fama-French three-factor model of assets pricing

In this paper, we characterize the relative importance of two sources of fundamental market-wide news—large firms’ earnings announcements and macroeconomic releases. Our investigation is motivated by growing concerns in the financial community about the increasing impact of individual...

We find that firms’ left-tail risk is a strong positive predictor of future bear spread returns, suggesting that the options market underreacts to firms’ left-tail risk and the downside protection provided by bear spreads is not adequately priced. The underreaction to firms' left-tail risk...