We use intraday data to compute weekly realized variance, skewness, and kurtosis for equity returns and study the realized moments' time-series and cross-sectional properties. We investigate if this week's realized moments are informative for the cross-section of next week's stock returns. We...

We analyze the relation between expected option returns and the volatility of the underlying securities. The expected return from holding a call (put) option is a decreasing (increasing) function of the volatility of the underlying. These predictions are strongly supported by the data. In the...

Many studies have documented that daily realized volatility estimates based on intraday returns provide volatility forecasts that are superior to forecasts constructed from daily returns only. We investigate whether these forecasting improvements translate into economic value added. To do so we...

The cross-section of stock returns has substantial exposure to risk captured by higher moments in market returns. We estimate these moments from daily S&P 500 index option data. The resulting time series of factors are thus genuinely conditional and forward-looking. Stocks with high...

We present a new discrete-time GARCH jump framework that allows for rich dynamics in higher moments by combining heteroskedastic processes with fat-tailed innovations in returns and volatility. We provide a tractable risk neutralization framework allowing for option valuation with separate...