In this paper, we provide evidence on two alternative mechanisms of interaction between returns and volatilities: the leverage effect and the volatility feedback effect. We stress the importance of distinguishing between realized volatility and implied volatility, and find that implied...

This paper proposes a novel methodology to construct optimal portfolios that incorporates the occurrence of systemic events. Investors maximize a modified Sharpe ratio conditional on a systemic event. We solve the portfolio allocation problem analytically under the absence of short-selling...

How the correlation between equity returns behaves during market turmoils has been an issue of discussion in the international finance literature. Some research suggest an increase of correlation during volatile periods [Ang and Bekaert, 2002], while others argue its stability [Forbes and...

In perfect capital markets, the futures price of an asset should be an unbiased forecast of its realized spot price when the contract matures. In reality, futures prices are often higher for some assets and lower for others. However, there is no stability in the relationship between futures...

Expected returns vary when investors face time-varying investment opportunities. In theory, structural long-run risk models (Bansal and Yaron, 2004) and no-arbitrage affine models (Duffie, Pan, and Singleton, 2000) emphasize sources of risk that are not observable to the econometrician. We show...