This article derives underlying asset risk-neutral probability distributions of European options on the S&P 500 index. Nonparametric methods are used to choose probabilities that minimize an objective function subject to requiring that the probabilities are consistent with observed option and...

We document that leverage-adjusted returns on S&P 500 index call and put portfolios are decreasing in their strike-to-price ratio over 1986-2010, contrary to the prediction of the Black-Scholes-Merton model. We test a large number of plausible unconditional factor models and find that only...

The class action law suit Annie Adams et al - Southern New York, 12-cv-07461, claims that banks increased 6-months USD LIBOR rates on first business days of a month in order to take advantage of mortgage holders due to inflated reset rates on the mortgages. The claims do not seem to be supported...

American options on the S&P 500 index futures that violate the stochastic dominance bounds of Constantinides and Perrakis (2007) from 1983 to 2006 are identified as potentially profitable trades. Call bid prices more frequently violate their upper bound than put bid prices do, while violations...

Investments in short-term dividend assets outperform investments in the market according to Binsbergen, Brandt, and Koijen (2012), but contrary to predictions of several asset pricing models. To examine these findings, we double the sample to 24 years. We also advocate an interest rate-invariant...

Risk-neutral distributions of the S&P 500 inform about the COVID-19 pandemic beyond what one can learn from index values and the market fear gauge VIX alone. We learn that, on February 20, 2020, the index did not reflect the impending crisis yet. Only on March 16, 2020, was the full impact...

We model a firm's value process controlled by a manager maximizing expected utility from restricted shares and employee stock options. The manager also dynamically controls allocation of his outside wealth. We explore interactions between those controls as he partially hedges his exposure to...

In this partial and selective literature review of option implied risk-neutral distributions and of implied binomial trees, we start by observing that in efficient markets, there is information contained in option prices, which might help us to design option pricing models. To this end, we...

In a novel approach, standard and implied binomial trees are completely specified in terms of two basic inputs: the ending nodal probability distribution and a linear weight function which governs the stochastic process resulting in that distribution. Several key economic principles, such as no...

The behavior of a hedge-fund manager naturally depends on her compensation scheme, her preferences, and constraints on her risk-taking. We propose a numerical method which can be used to analyze the impact of these influences. The model leads to several interesting and novel results concerning...