Equity option markets exhibit intense trading activity. We use the variability of option implied volatility spread as a …. Over the 2006 – 2016 period, we find that the predictive power of option implied volatility spread for future stock returns … is significantly greater when implied volatility spread has been more variable in the past. Our results are statistically …

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 account these stylized facts, this article introduces a novel two …