An option contract is a zero-sum game, so two identical risk-averse investors would never take opposite sides of it. While they will agree on the correct option price, they would never trade with each other. Heterogeneity is essential for options trading to exist, and aggregating diverse...

We study the relationship between stock returns and the implied volatility smile slope of call and put options. Stocks with a steeper put slope earn lower future returns, while stocks with a steeper call slope earn higher future returns. Using dispersion of opinion as a proxy for belief...

This study tests whether investor belief differences affect the cross-sectional variation of risk-neutral skewness, using data on firm-level stock options traded on the CBOE from 2003 to 2006. Using well known proxies for heterogeneous beliefs, we find that stocks with greater belief differences...