In pricing primary-market options and in making secondary markets, financial intermediaries depend on the quality of forecasts of the variance of the underlying assets. Hence, the gain from improved pricing of options would be a measure of the value of a forecast of underlying asset returns....

The KOSPI 200 options are one of the most actively traded derivatives in the world. This paper empirically examines (a) the statistical properties of the Korea's representative implied volatility index (VKOSPI) derived from the KOSPI 200 options and (b) macroeconomic and financial variables that...