Despite the suggestion made by investment banks and brokerage firms for private investors to substitute one or all part of their stock investment by the associated option, the real benefit obtained from dealing with an option rather than with its underlying stock remains to be understood. Using...

We document both theoretically and empirically a major dependence in both the Information Shares (IS) and Component Shares (CS) approaches to the estimation of the price discovery metrics on the errors arising out of the inversion method of the option value to find the implied stock price. We...

Leland's approach to the hedging of derivatives under proportional transaction costs is based on an approximate replication of the European-type contingent claim VT using the classical Black Scholes formulae with a suitably enlarged volatility. The formal mathematical framework is a scheme of...

Existing research examines the impact of volatility shocks on the relative pricing of long-term vs. short-term options and documents patterns of short-horizon underreaction and long-horizon overreaction in the options market. These studies, however, rely on implied volatilities derived from...

The financial crisis of 2008 had many putative causes. Psychology was an important driver for human decisions underlying these causes. However, quantitative financial models have no “knobs” to dial psychology parameters, and so arguably cannot possibly cope with financial crises. We have no...

Many financial instruments are designed with embedded leverage such as options and leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs). Embedded leverage alleviates investors' leverage constraints and, therefore, we hypothesize that embedded leverage lowers required returns. Consistent with this hypothesis,...

In this study, we examine the options market reaction to bank loan announcements for the population of US firms with traded options and loan announcements during 1996-2010. We get evidence on a significant options market reaction to bank loan announcements in terms of levels and changes in...

This paper focuses on the search for a summary quantitative measure for option liquidity that is economically meaningful and easy to implement. We show that the relative spread measure (quoted dollar bid-ask spread relative to the mid-quote price) not only leads to liquidity ranking of options...

This paper documents the fact that in options markets, the (percentage) implied volatility bid-ask spread increases at an increasing rate as the option's maturity date approaches. To explain this stylized fact, this paper provides a market microstructure model for the bid-ask spread in options...

A classic result by Merton (1973) is that, except just before expiration or dividend payments, one should never exercise a call option and never convert a convertible bond. We show theoretically that this result is overturned when investors face frictions. Early option exercise can be optimal...