State-of-the-art stochastic volatility models generate a 'volatility smirk' that explains why out-of-the-money index puts have high prices relative to the Black-Scholes benchmark. These models also adequately explain how the volatility smirk moves up and down in response to changes in risk....

This paper explores the variance risk premium in option returns across twenty different futures, including equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities (energy, metals, and grains). We implement a novel model-free methodology that constructs tradable option portfolios, which replicate realized...

The authors find predictable patterns in stock returns. Stocks whose relative returns are high in a given half hour today exhibit similar outperformance in the same half hour on subsequent days. The effect is stronger at both the beginning and the end of the trading day. These results suggest...

This paper develops a new method to calculate hedged returns on model-free “equity VIX” option portfolios. Our returns are highly correlated with realized variance minus implied variance. Compared to CBOE’s VIX formula, our formulas are more accurate for both simulated and actual prices,...

The literature on dynamic option valuation typically does not explicitly specify a pricing kernel. Instead it characterizes the kernel indirectly by specifying prices of risk, or defines it implicitly as the ratio of the risk-neutral and physical probabilities. We propose explicit pricing...