The intuition behind linear regression can be difficult for students to grasp particularly without a readily accessible context. This paper uses basketball statistics to demonstrate the purpose of linear regression and to explain how to interpret its results. In particular, the student will...

Assuming use of the correct option pricing model and an efficient market, an option's implied volatility is the market's consensus forecast of future realized volatility over the remaining life of that option. We examine 460 of the Samp;P 500 firms to demonstrate that 1) implied volatility is a...

For decades the finance profession has noticed the tendency of equity prices, most noticeably for small stocks, to rise in value in the month of January. The small stock January effect appears to have been significant over the last thirty five years. However, we demonstrate that even after...

Absent liquidity in long-term futures or forward markets, firms use nearby contracts to hedge long-term commitments. To hedge commodities that exhibit stochastic convenience yield, adjustments to the naive stacked hedge are necessary. Simulated and empirical tests of the hedging model using oil,...