Abstract: This study focuses on the wealth-protective effects of socially responsible firm behaviour by examining the association between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial risk for an extensive panel data sample of S&P 500 companies between the years 1992 and 2009. In addition, the link between CSP and investor utility is investigated. The main findings are that corporate social responsibilityContinue reading

Abstract: This paper examines the ability of several different continuous-time one and two-factor jump-diffusion models to capture the dynamics of the VIX volatility index for the period between 1990 and 2010. For the one-factor models we study affine and non-affine specifications, possibly augmented with jumps. Jumps in one-factor models occur frequently, but add surprisingly little to the ability of theContinue reading

Abstract: Most research on option hedging has compared the performance of delta hedges derived from different stochastic volatility models with Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) deltas, and in particular with the `implied BSM’ model in which an option’s delta is based on its own market implied volatility. Various empirical studies of vanilla options on different equity indices have provided substantial evidence that minimumContinue reading

Abstract: This paper introduces a new class of generalized beta-generated distributions that have very flexible shapes and tractable properties. Their quantiles and moments have a simple closed form and they are maximum entropy distributions under three simple conditions. Two special cases are the classical beta-generated and the Kumaraswamy-generated distributions. An attractive feature of generalized beta-normal distributions is that the threeContinue reading

Abstract: Price movements in many commodity markets exhibit significant seasonal patterns. In this paper, we study the effects of seasonal volatility on models’ option pricing performance. In terms of options pricing, a deterministic seasonal component at the price level can be neglected. In contrast, this is not true for the seasonal pattern observed in the volatility of the commodity price.Continue reading

Abstract: We quantify and endogenize the model risk associated with quantile estimates using a maximum entropy distribution (MED) as benchmark. Moment-based MEDs cannot have heavy tails, however generalized beta generated distributions have attractive properties for popular applications of quantiles. These are MEDs under three simple constraints on the parameters that explicitly control tail weight and peakness. Model risk arises becauseContinue reading

Abstract: This paper examines the ability of twelve different continuous-time two-factor models with mean-reverting stochastic volatility to capture the dynamics of the S&P 500 and three European equity indices. The stochastic volatility models are the square root variance, GARCH, and log volatility diffusions, and each is augmented with price and volatility jump extensions. Parameter estimation is by Markov Chain MonteContinue reading

Abstract: This paper implements a variety of different calibration methods applied to the Heston model and examines their effect on the performance of standard and minimum-variance hedging of vanilla options on the FTSE 100 index. Simple adjustments to the Black-Scholes-Merton model are used as a benchmark. Our empirical findings apply to delta, delta-gamma or delta-vega hedging and they are robustContinue reading

Abstract: In this article, we consider the pricing and hedging of single route dry bulk freight futures contracts traded on the International Maritime Exchange. Thus far, this relatively young market has received almost no academic attention. In contrast to many other commodity markets, freight services are non-storable, making a simple cost-of-carry valuation impossible. We empirically compare the pricing and hedgingContinue reading

Abstract: By employing Moody’s corporate default and rating transition data spanning the last 90 years we explore how much capital banks should hold against their corporate loan portfolios to withstand historical stress scenarios. Specifically, we shall focus on the worst case scenario over the observation period, the Great Depression. We find that migration risk and the length of the investmentContinue reading

Abstract: This article analyzes the issue of American option valuation when the underlying exhibits a GARCH-type volatility process. We propose the usage of Rubinstein’s Edgeworth binomial tree (EBT) in contrast to simulation-based methods being considered in previous studies. The EBT-based valuation approach makes an implied calibration of the pricing model feasible. By empirically analyzing the pricing performance of American indexContinue reading

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the pricing of crack spread options. The special focus is laid on the question, of whether univariate modeling of the crack spread or explicit modeling of the two underlyings is preferable. Therefore, we contrast the bivariate GARCH volatility model for co-integrated underlyings of Duan and Pliska (2004), with the alternative of modeling the crackContinue reading