In this paper we compare a variety of technical trading rules in the context of investing in the S&P500 index. These rules are increasingly popular both among retail investors and CTAs and similar investment funds. We find that a range of fairly simple rules, including the popular 200-day moving...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically test dominant theories and assumptions in behavioral finance, using data from the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis has three parts: to test the assumption of risk aversion; to examine the...

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 tradeoff in other asset classes. In-trumented principal components analysis (IPCA) solves this problem by tracking contracts in terms...

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....