When the pricing kernel is U-shaped, then expected returns of claims with payout on the upside are negative for strikes beyond a threshold, determined by the slope of the U-shaped kernel in its increasing region, and have negative partial derivative with respect to strike in the increasing...

The market risk premium is central in finance, and has been analyzed by numerous studies in the time-series predictability literature and by growing studies in the options literature. In this paper, we provide a novel link between the two literatures. Theoretically, we derive a lower bound on...

This paper surveys the literature that deals with the informational content of market option prices for the purposes of quantitative asset management. We review studies that have investigated whether market option prices may help a portfolio manager in the stock selection process, portfolio...

This brief paper discusses the option-like exposures of a number of hedge fund strategies based on a review of the literature on the topic. Specifically, recent academic articles have argued that implicit options arise in hedge fund products due to the following factors: (1) the tailoring of...

Today there are many equity derivatives that are traded on organized and over-the-counter markets. The models that allow market participants to value them and manage the associated risks on a daily basis are numerous. The idea of this study is, for vanilla equity options, to understand the Black...

Under very general conditions, the total quadratic variation of a jump-diffusion process can be decomposed into diffusive volatility and squared jump variation. We use this result to develop a new option valuation model in which the underlying asset price exhibits volatility and jump intensity...

I use index prices and options to estimate the pricing kernel's elasticity, which equals the market price of risk. I show that my estimate predicts future market returns, is priced in a cross-sectional analysis, and that it is highly correlated to business cycle variables. Building on the...

Derivative securities and markets have experienced tremendous worldwide growth since 1970. But even so, they are not always well understood. To remedy this situation, the authors explain the link between options and futures and the underlying security or index from which they ultimately derive...