We test whether investor disagreements and private information in the market impact the demand for, and the pricing of, insurance sought by investors before earnings announcements (EAs). Using a large sample of straddle returns, we find higher EA variance risk premiums (VRPs) for firms with a...

In this paper, I investigate how variance risk premiums change as firms age. Negative variance risk premiums represent profits that, on average, accrue to traders willing to sell option protection to other investors. Although typical risk measures decrease as firms age, my results suggest that...

This paper investigates alternative models of learning to explain changes in uncertainty surrounding earnings innovations. As a proxy for investor uncertainty, we use model-free implied volatilities; as a proxy for earnings innovations, representing signals of firm performance likely to drive...

In this article, we present a multi-factor stochastic volatility framework for pricing European options based on independent component analysis. We fit this model to empirical data on exchange-traded options in order to create a consistent pricing and hedging mechanism for multi-asset...

This paper investigates the factors that drove the U.S. equity market returns from 2007 through early 2010. The period was highlighted by volatile energy and commodity prices, the collapse of insurance and banking firms, extreme implied volatility and a subsequent rally in the overall market. To...