We study the predictive power of option-implied moment risk premia embedded in theconventional variance risk premium. We find that while the second moment risk premiumpredicts market returns in short horizons with positive coefficients, the third (fourth)moment risk premium predicts market...

We examine short selling of equity exchange traded funds (ETFs) using the 2008 short-sale ban. Contrasting the previously documented contractions in bearish strategies during the ban, we find a significant increase in short sales of the largest, most liquid ETF, the S&P 500 Spider. We offer...

While major stock market indices are followed by large monetary investments, we document that membership decisions for the S&P 500 index have a nontrivial amount of discretion. We show that firms' purchases of S&P ratings appear to improve their chance of entering the index (but purchases of...

Due to their short lifespans and migrating moneyness, options are notoriously difficult to study with the factor models commonly used to analyze the risk-return trade-off in other asset classes. Instrumented principal components analysis solves this problem by tracking contracts in terms of...

In the data, out-of-the-money (OTM) S&P 500 call and put options both have puzzling low average returns. Existing studies relate these results to models with non-standard preferences. We argue that the low returns on OTM index options are primarily due to the pricing of market volatility risk....