A relationship exists between aggregate risk-neutral and subjective probability distributions and risk aversion functions. We empirically derive risk aversion functions implied by option prices and realized returns on the Samp;P500 index simultaneously. These risk aversion functions dramatically change shapes around the 1987 crash: Precrash, they are positive and decreasing in wealth and largely consistent with standard assumptions made in economic theory. Postcrash, they are partially negative and partially increasing and irreconcilable with those assumptions. Mispricing in the option market is the most likely cause. Simulated trading strategies exploiting this mispricing shows excess returns even after accounting for the possibility of further crashes, transaction costs, and hedges against the downside risk.

This book mainly addresses the general equilibrium asset pricing method in two aspects: option pricing and variance risk premium. First, volatility smile and smirk is the famous puzzle in option pricing. Different from no arbitrage method, this book applies the general equilibrium approach in explaining the puzzle. In the presence of jump, investors impose more weights on the jump risk than the volatility risk, and as a result, investors require more jump risk premium which generates a pronounced volatility smirk. Second, based on the general equilibrium framework, this book proposes variance risk premium and empirically tests its predictive power for international stock market returns.

Along with the extraordinary growth in the derivatives market over the last decade, the impact of model choice, and model parameter usage, has become a major source of valuation uncertainty. This book concentrates on equity derivatives and charts, step by step, how key assumptions on the dynamics of stocks impact on the value of exotics. The presentation is technical, but maintains a strong focus on intuition and practical application./a

This book illustrates the application of the economic concept of stochastic dominance to option markets and presents an alternative option pricing paradigm to the prevailing no arbitrage simultaneous equilibrium in the frictionless underlying and option markets. This new methodology was developed primarily by the author, working independently or jointly with other co-authors, over the course of more than thirty years. Among others, it yields the fundamental Black-Scholes-Merton option value when markets are complete, presents a new approach to the pricing of rare event risk, and uncovers option mispricing that leads to tradeable strategies in the presence of transaction costs. In the latter case it shows how a utility-maximizing investor trading in the market and a riskless bond, subject to proportional transaction costs, can increase his/her expected utility by overlaying a zero-net-cost portfolio of options bought at their ask price and written at their bid price, irrespective of the specific form of the utility function. The book contains a unified presentation of these methods and results, making it a highly readable supplement for educators and sophisticated professionals working in the popular field of option pricing. It also features a foreword by George Constantinides, the Leo Melamed Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, USA, who was a co-author in several parts of the book.

This book shows how current and recent market prices convey information about the probability distributions that govern future prices. Moving beyond purely theoretical models, Stephen Taylor applies methods supported by empirical research of equity and foreign exchange markets to show how daily and more frequent asset prices, and the prices of option contracts, can be used to construct and assess predictions about future prices, their volatility, and their probability distributions. Stephen Taylor provides a comprehensive introduction to the dynamic behavior of asset prices, relying on finance theory and statistical evidence. He uses stochastic processes to define mathematical models for price dynamics, but with less mathematics than in alternative texts. The key topics covered include random walk tests, trading rules, ARCH models, stochastic volatility models, high-frequency datasets, and the information that option prices imply about volatility and distributions. Asset Price Dynamics, Volatility, and Prediction is ideal for students of economics, finance, and mathematics who are studying financial econometrics, and will enable researchers to identify and apply appropriate models and methods. It will likewise be a valuable resource for quantitative analysts, fund managers, risk managers, and investors who seek realistic expectations about future asset prices and the risks to which they are exposed.

Highlights research in derivatives modelling and markets in a post-crisis world across a number of dimensions or themes. This book addresses the following main areas: derivatives models and pricing, model application and performance backtesting, and new products and market features.

A treatment of structural credit risk models for simultaneous and consistent pricing of corporate securities. This book takes us from the economic principles of firm value models to the empirical implementation, through the development of an economic framework. It provides exposition of corporate securities pricing for academics and practitioners.

This book proposes new tools and models to price options, assess market volatility, and investigate the market efficiency hypothesis. In particular, it considers new models for hedge funds and derivatives of derivatives, and adds to the literature of testing for the efficiency of markets both theoretically and empirically.