Option prices seem to behave in ways inconsistent with the Black-Scholes model. Implied volatility varies with the strike price in a parabolic shape that is often called the volatility 'smile.' My objective in this paper is to identify implied probability distributions that might explain this...

Over-allotment arrangements are nowadays part of almost any initial public offering. The underwriting banks borrow stocks from the previous shareholders to issue more than the initially announced number of shares. This is combined with the option to cover this short position at the issue price....

With the innovation of derivatives, the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 index -- as an underlying asset of the volatility index (VIX) introduced by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) -- was adopted as the research subject in this study. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the degree of...

In recent years there has been a remarkable growth of volatility options. In particular, VIX options are among the most actively trading contracts at CBOE. These options exhibit upward sloping volatility skew and the shape of the skew is largely independent of the volatility level. To take into...

Equity option markets exhibit intense trading activity. We use the variability of option implied volatility spread as a proxy for the impounding of new information, and changes in the interpretation of existing information, into option prices. Over the 2006 – 2016 period, we find that the...

We study the intra-horizon value at risk (iVaR) in a general jump diffusion setup and propose a new model of asset returns called displaced mixed-exponential model, which can arbitrarily closely approximate finite-activity jump-diffusions and completely monotone Levy processes. We derive...

We propose a measure for the convexity of an option-implied volatility curve, IV convexity, as a forward-looking measure of excess tail-risk contribution to the perceived variance of underlying equity returns. Using equity options data for individual U.S.-listed stocks during 2000-2013, we find...

We document that a theoretically founded, real-time, and easy-to-implement option-based measure, termed synthetic-stock difference (SSD), accurately estimates the part of stock's expected return arising from stock's transaction costs. We calculate SSD for U.S. optionable stocks. SSD can be more...

The aim of this paper is twofold: to investigate how the information content of implied volatility varies according to moneyness and option type and to compare option-based forecasts with historical volatility. The different information content of implied volatility is examined for the most...

In this paper we study the development of interest rate risk premium and option implied state price densities in the Euribor futures option market. Using parametric and non-parametric statistical calibration, we transform the risk-neutral option implied densities for the Euribor futures rate...