Aggregate implied volatility spread (IVS), defined as the cross-sectional average difference in the implied volatilities of at-the-money call and put equity options, is significantly and positively related to future stock market returns at daily, weekly, monthly, to semiannual horizons. This...

We examine whether option prices correct for predictable bias in stock prices associated with accounting anomalies. Evidence from put-call parity violations suggests that they do not. Rather, option prices accurately track contemporaneous stock prices. Further analysis suggests that high costs...

Informed traders may prefer the options market to the stock market for reasons including the leverage effect, transaction costs, restrictions on short sale. Many studies try to predict future returns of stocks using informed traders' behavior in the options market. In this study, we examine...

This paper investigates the performance of option investments across different stocks by computing monthly returns on at-the-money straddles on individual equities. It finds that options with high historical returns continue to significantly outperform options with low historical returns over...

This study examines whether changes in the implied volatility of stock options have cross-sectional predictability for future changes in credit default swap (CDS) spreads in the Korean market. The major findings are as follows. First, in the CDS portfolio analysis, when buying a portfolio with...

I show that the inventory risk faced by market-makers has a first-order effect on option prices. I introduce a simple approach that decomposes the price impact of trades into inventory risk and asymmetric information components. While both components are large for option trades, the inventory...

We document empirically that the returns from shorting out-of-the-money S&P 500 put options are concentrated in the few days preceding their expiration. Back-month options generate almost no returns, and front-month options do so only towards the end of the option cycle. The concentration of the...

This paper develops a new method to calculate hedged returns on model-free “equity VIX” option portfolios. Our returns are highly correlated with realized variance minus implied variance. Compared to CBOE’s VIX formula, our formulas are more accurate for both simulated and actual prices,...

This paper examines how options traders trade daily stock market mispricing measured by short-term past return and put-call option volatility spread. Anomaly return is 7.31 basis points per day when customer option traders trade along with the anomaly signal and is insignificant when they trade...