We analyze the high-frequency dynamics of S&P 500 equity-index option prices by constructing an assortment of implied volatility measures. This allows us to infer the underlying fine structure behind the innovations in the latent state variables driving the movements of the volatility surface....

Principal component analysis of equity options on Dow-Jones firms reveals a strong factor structure. The first principal component explains 77% of the variation in the equity volatility level, 77% of the variation in the equity option skew, and 60% of the implied volatility term structure across...

Recent research has focused on modelling asset prices by Itô semimartingales. In such a modelling framework, the quadratic variation consists of a continuous and a jump component. This paper is about inference on the jump part of the quadratic variation, which can be estimated by the difference...

This paper studies the effect of time–inhomogeneous jumps and leverage type effects on realised variance calculations when the logarithmic asset price is given by a Lévy–driven stochastic volatility model. In such a model, the realised variance is an inconsistent estimator of the integrated...

We study the dynamic relation between market risks and risk premia using time series of index option surfaces. We find that priced left tail risk cannot be spanned by market volatility (and its components) and introduce a new tail factor. This tail factor has no incremental predictive power for...

We develop a new parametric estimation procedure for option panels observed with error which relies on asymptotic approximations assuming an ever increasing set of observed option prices in the moneyness-maturity (cross-sectional) dimension, but with a fixed time span. We develop consistent...

State-of-the-art stochastic volatility models generate a "volatility smirk" that explains why out-of-the-money index puts have high prices relative to the Black-Scholes benchmark. These models also adequately explain how the volatility smirk moves up and down in response to changes in risk....

This paper develops a new systematic approach to implement approximate solutions to asset pricing models within multi-factor diffusion environments. For any model lacking a closed-form solution, we provide a solution obtained by expanding the analytically intractable model around a known...

Stock market volatility clusters in time, carries a risk premium, is fractionally integrated, and exhibits asymmetric leverage effects relative to returns. This paper develops a first internally consistent equilibrium based explanation for these longstanding empirical facts. The model is cast in...