Equity basket correlation is an important risk factor. It characterizes the strength of linear dependence between assets and thus measures the degree of portfolio diversification. It can be estimated both under the physical measure from return series, and under the risk neutral measure from...

This paper studies the effects of default risk on equity option returns. We show that there is a cross-sectional and a time-series relation between default risk and option returns. In the cross-section, expected delta-hedged equity option returns have a negative relation with default risk...

This paper suggests a method of estimation of the implied volatility smile uncertainty of the observed options prices due to future risk-free rate uncertainty. The purpose is to quantify the range of uncertainty under different scenarios.We consider the setting where both the implied volatility...

In this paper, we propose a general data-driven framework that unifies the valuation and risk measurement of financial derivatives, which is especially useful in markets with thinly-traded derivatives. We first extract the empirical characteristic function from market-observable time series for...

Option prices, particularly those of out-of-the-money equity index puts, are difficult to justify in a no-arbitrage framework. This paper shows how limits to arbitrage affect the relative pricing of out-of-the-money put vs. call options (option-implied skewness). Decomposing the price of...

We investigate the effect of including variance derivatives as calibration and hedging instruments for pricing and hedging exotic structures. This is studied empirically using market data for SPX and VIX derivatives applied in a stochastic volatility jump diffusion model

We propose a new measure of financial intermediary constraints based on how the intermediaries manage their tail risk exposures. Using a unique dataset for the trading activities in the market of deep out-of-the-money S&P 500 put options, we identify periods when the variations in the net amount...

Asymmetric volatility concerns the relation of returns to future expected volatility. Much is known from option prices about the marginal risk-neutral distributions of S&P 500 returns and of relative changes in future expected volatility (VIX). While the bivariate risk-neutral distribution...

This paper documents the fact that in options markets, the (percentage) implied volatility bid-ask spread increases at an increasing rate as the option's maturity date approaches. To explain this stylized fact, this paper provides a market microstructure model for the bid-ask spread in options...

We develop a new option pricing framework that tightly integrates with how institutional investors manage options positions. The framework starts with the near-term dynamics of the implied volatility surface and derives no-arbitrage constraints on its current shape. Within this framework, we...