In this report we study South African implied volatility from three different perspectives. Firstly, we conduct an analysis of the historical Top40 Index implied volatility surface dynamics. In particular, we consider the regime-dependence of atm volatility and skew levels and how this...

The Jarrow and Yildirim model for pricing inflation indexed derivatives is still the main reference technique adopted in the inflation market. Despite its popularity it has several shortcomings, the most immediate of which is the difficulty of calibration to market prices of options. The model...

This paper develops GARCH and VEC-MGARCH-based tests of four hypotheses from Fama and French (1988) involving linkages between spot and futures prices --- both their levels and variances. The tests are applied to monthly data for seven metals traded on the London Metal Exchange over the period...

This paper examines the relationship between currency option's implied skewness and its future realized skewness, where the difference is known as the skewness risk premium (SRP). The SRP indicates whether investors pay a premium to be insured against future crash risk. Past investigations about...

Implicit in industry standard option pricing models is the expectation that roughly 25% of stocks with 60% consistent volatility will septuple within 10 years, an extraordinary rate of appreciation. The exceptionally high equilibrium anticipated returns for an improbably large percentage of high...

We present a regression-based generalization of the calendar time portfolio approach which allowsfor the inclusion of continuous and multivariate investor or firm characteristics in the analysis. Ourmethod is simple to apply and it ensures that the statistical results are heteroscedasticity...

Die Anteile fluktuierender erneuerbarer Stromerzeugung aus Windkraft- und Photovoltaikanlagen steigen in Deutschland und Europa. Ein effizienterer Handel dieser erneuerbarer Energien erfordert flexible Strommärkte. Hierbei können Auktionen einen effizienteren Handel ermöglichen, unter anderem...

With more than ten thousand casualties, the 2014 Ukrainian war between pro-Russian separatists and the government in the Donbass region, Ukraine's productive core, has taken a severe toll on the country. Using cross-country panel data over the period 1995-2017, this paper quantifies the...

Is it true that speed bumps level the playing field, make financial markets more stable and reduce negative externalities of high-frequency trading (HFT) firms? We examine how the implementation of a particular speed bump - Midpoint Extended Life order (M-ELO) on Nasdaq impacted financial...

The purpose of this study is to examine the weak-form market efficiency hypothesis (EMH) for 8 African Frontier markets between 2001 and 2017. To achieve this purpose, we employ unit root testing procedures which are robust to both nonlinearities and smooth structural breaks, making this study...