What is the optimal number of uncorrelated strategies to include in a portfolio consisting of cross-asset strategies? Various criteria have been proposed for finding the optimal number of factors in a factor model, many of them in the framework of Principal Component Analysis. Using a refined...

In a discrete time option pricing framework, we compare the empirical performance of two pricing methodologies, namely the affine stochastic discount factor (SDF) and the empirical martingale correction methodologies. Using a CAC 40 options dataset, the differences are found to be small: the...

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to estimate the subjective distribution of the future short rate from the historical dynamics of futures, based on a model generated by a Normal Inverse Gaussian distribution, with dynamical parameters. The model displays time varying conditional...

In this paper, we provide a new dynamic asset pricing model for plain vanilla options and we discuss its ability to produce minimum mispricing errors on equity option books. The data set is the daily log returns of the French CAC40 index, on the period January 2, 1988, October 26, 2007. Under...

In a discrete time option pricing framework, we compare the empirical performance of two pricing methodologies, namely the affine stochastic discount factor and the empirical martingale correction methodologies. Using a CAC 40 options dataset, the differences are found to be small : the higher...

This article questions the empirical usefulness of leverage effects to describe the dynamics of equity returns. Using a recursive estimation scheme that accurately disentangles the asymmetry coming from the conditional distribution of returns and the asymmetry that is related to the past return...

This article aims at establishing an understanding of the common risk factors in commodity markets, as well as their interactions with equities, currencies and interest rates. Since commodity markets often exhibit cross-sectional dependency, common risk factors exist and can be identified. By...

From 2008 to 2011, commodity markets experienced growing attention from the banking industry for various reasons: the summer 2008 oil price swing, the price surge in an ounce of gold, or sharp variations in agricultural prices. As a consequence, can we hypothesize the existence of a global...

The estimation of the jump component in asset pricing has witnessed a considerably growing body of literature. Of particular interest is the decomposition of total volatility between its continuous and jump components. Recent contributions highlight the importance of the jump component in...

Forecasting the density of returns is useful for many purposes in finance, such as risk manage- ment activities, portfolio choice or derivative security pricing. Existing methods to forecast the den- sity of returns either use prices of the asset of interest or option prices on this same asset....