We introduce a new meaure of risk appetite in financial markets, based on the cross sectional behavior of excess returns. Turning them into probabilities through a Markov Switching model, we define one global risk appetite measure as the cross-sectional average of the individual probabilities...

A shared belief in the financial industry is that markets are driven by two types of regimes. Bull markets would be characterized by high returns and low volatility whereas bear markets would display low returns coupled with high volatility. Modeling the dynamics of different asset classes...

As commodity markets have continued their expansion an extensive and complex financial industry has developed to service them. This industry includes hundreds of participating firms, including asset managers, brokers, consultants, verification agencies and a myriad of other institutions....