The performance of dynamic trading and investment strategies can be difficult to predict. Although not without its problems, analysis of the historical performance of a strategy can provide valuable insight into its general risk and return properties. Furthermore, historical analysis allows one...

We study the partial equilibrium portfolio optimization problem for a myopic CRRA investor who can trade options on individual stocks. Applying the parametric portfolio approach of Brandt, Santa-Clara, and Valkanov (forthcoming) to derivatives, we show that options characteristics (such as...

We study the cross-section of stock options returns and find an economically important source of mispricing in individual equity options. Sorting stocks based on the difference between historical realized volatility and market implied volatility, we find that a zero-cost trading strategy that is...

The slope of the implied volatility term structure is positively related to future option returns. We rank firms based on the slope of the volatility term structure and analyze the returns for straddle portfolios. Straddle portfolios with high slopes of the volatility term structure outperform...

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...

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...

Pushing models to extremes can expose output biases that stem from underlying assumptions. In the case of industry standard option valuation models, long term, high volatility securities provide a stress test vehicle. For instance, in evaluating a stock with 60% volatility, industry standard...

We use quantile regression to investigate the short-term return-volatility relation between stock index returns and changes in implied volatility index. Neither the leverage hypothesis nor the volatility feedback hypothesis effectively explains the asymmetric return-volatility relation. Instead,...

We assess the presence and nature of strategic trading by informed investors in the options market. Specifically, we develop and test a model for the spread of an option that directly captures the effects of strategic trading by informed traders. We show that the underlying stock's spread has an...

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...