This study examines the effect of option volume relative to stock volume (O/S) on market response to earnings surprises. The market reaction per unit of earnings surprise is lower for firms that have high O/S prior to earnings announcement than for firms with low O/S prior to earnings...

In this study, I develop a novel methodology to extract crash risk premia from options and stock markets. I document a dramatic increase in crash risk premia after the 2008/2009 nancial crisis, indicating that investors are willing to pay high insurance to hedge against crashes in individual...

We show that idiosyncratic jumps are a key determinant of mean stock returns from both an ex post and ex ante perspective. Ex post, the entire annual average return of a typical stock accrues on the four days on which its stock price jumps. Ex ante, idiosyncratic jump risk earns a premium: a...

I show how funding costs to derivatives dealers' shareholders for carrying and hedging inventory affect mid-market derivatives prices. An implication is that some supposed "no-arbitrage" pricing relationships, such as put-call parity, frequently break down. I also explore the implications for...

We show that a model featuring an average commodity factor, a carry factor, and a momentum factor is capable of describing the cross-sectional variation of commodity returns. More parsimonious one- and two-factor models that feature only the average and/or carry factors are rejected. To provide...

This paper estimates the variance risk premium (VRP) and the skew risk premium (SRP) for the individual stocks and indexes in the US financial markets, and then further analyzes the determinants of the cross-sectional variations of (i) the VRP and SRP for 40 indexes and stocks, (ii) the average...

In this paper, we explore the relation between information uncertainty and S&P 500 index option returns. Since underlying state variable affecting economy is unobservable, investors have to obtain their own estimations based on available information. During such procedure, it is inevitable that...

We develop a firm valuation model with repeated expansion and contraction options to show operating profitability is a proxy for time-varying systematic risk. Relative to riskier assets, the proportionate value of contraction options increase as profitability falls, lowering the firm beta....