When the pricing kernel is U-shaped, then expected returns of claims with payout on the upside are negative for strikes beyond a threshold, determined by the slope of the U-shaped kernel in its increasing region, and have negative partial derivative with respect to strike in the increasing...

We develop a new theory of asset return and volatility based on the stable law and Lihn's former work on the lambda distribution. The accomplishments are twofold: First, the newly discovered stable count distribution models the stationary distribution of VIX with high statistical precision....

The Black-Scholes model and many of its extensions imply a log-normal distribution of stock returns. However, for holding periods of up to a year, the empirical return distribution (both conditional and unconditional) is not log-normal, but rather much closer to the logistic distribution. This...

In equity option markets, traders face margin requirements both for the options themselves and for hedging-related positions in the underlying stock market. We show that these requirements carry a significant margin premium in the cross-section of equity option returns. The sign of the margin...

The recent literature provides conflicting empirical evidence on the pricing of idiosyncratic risk. This paper sheds new light on the matter by exploiting the richness of option data. First, we find that idiosyncratic risk explains 28% of the variation in the risk premium on a stock. Second, we...

We introduce a discrete-time model for log-return dynamics with observable volatility and jumps. Our proposal extends the class of Realized Volatility heterogeneous auto-regressive gamma (HARG) processes adding a jump component with time-varying intensity. The model is able to reproduce the...

We develop an ex-ante measure of expected stock returns based on analyst price targets. We then show that ex-ante measures of volatility, skewness, and kurtosis implied from stock option prices are positively related to the cross section of ex-ante expected stock returns. While expected returns...

In this paper, we combine modern portfolio theory and option pricing theory so that a trader who takes a position in a European option contract and the underlying assets can construct an optimal portfolio such that at the moment of the contract's maturity the contract is perfectly hedged. We...

This paper presents a robust new finding that there is a significantly negative relation between the equity option returns and the forward-looking volatility-of-volatility (VOV). After controlling for numerous existing option and stock characteristics, the VOV effect remains significantly...

This paper analyzes empirical market utility functions and pricing kernels derived from the DAX and DAX option data for three market regimes. A consistent parametric framework of stochastic volatility is used. All empirical market utility functions show a region of risk proclivity that is...