By exploiting the flexibility of the Wishart process, we propose an application of this framework to the pricing of Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) volatility index (VIX) options. Our methodology is analytically tractable and yet flexible enough to efficiently price CBOE VIX options. In...

In this paper, we construct tight lower and upper bounds for the price of an American strangle, which is a special type of strangle consisting of long positions in an American put and an American call, where the early exercise of one side of the position will knock-out the remaining side. This...

The objective of this paper is to perform a joint analysis of jump activity for commodities and their respective volatility indices. Exploiting the property that for affine jump-diffusion models a volatility index, which is quoted on the market, is an affine function of the instantaneous...

The article presents a simple parameterization of the volatility surface for options on the S&P 500 volatility index, VIX. Specifically, we document the following features of VIX implied volatility: (i) VIX at-the-money (ATM) implied volatility correlates strongly with the volatility skew in S&P...

This is the first paper to calculate and analyze option-implied dividends for individual US companies, while accounting for the early exercise premium. These firm-level implied dividends show substantial variation relative to actual dividends over time as well as in the cross-section. Implied...

In this work we derive new closed-form pricing formulas for VIX options in the jump-diffusion SVJJ model proposed by Duffie et al. (2000). Our approach is based on the classic methodology of approximating a density function with an orthogonal expansion of polynomials weighted by a kernel....

Much empirical evidence shows that stock short-selling costs and bans have significant effects on option prices. We reconcile these findings by providing a dynamic analysis of option prices with costly short-selling and option marketmakers. In our framework, short-sellers incur a shorting fee to...

Informed traders may prefer the options market to the stock market for reasons including the leverage effect, transaction costs, restrictions on short sale. Many studies try to predict future returns of stocks using informed traders' behavior in the options market. In this study, we examine...

We propose implied spreads (IS) and normalized implied spreads (NIS) as simple measures to characterize option prices. IS is the credit spread of an option’s implied bond, the portfolio long a risk-free bond and short a put option. NIS normalizes IS by the risk-neutral default probability and...

In this paper, we derive optimal hedging strategies for options in electricity futures markets. Optimality is measured in terms of minimal variance and the associated minimal variance hedging portfolios are obtained by a stochastic maximum principle. Our explicit results are particularly useful...