Skip navigation
Title: 

Testing the Volatility Term Structure Using Option Hedging Criteria

Authors: Engle, Robert F.
Rosenberg, Joshua V.
Issue Date: Jan-1997
Series/Report no.: FIN-96-024
Abstract: The volatility term structure (VTS) reflects market expectations of average asset volatility over different time horizons. Various stochastic volatility models provide forecasts of the VTS and how it shifts in response to changes in market conditions. This paper develops a methodology for testing VTS forecasts using option hedging performance. An innovative feature of the hedging approach is its increased sensitivity to several important forms of model misspecification relative to previous testing methods. Hedging tests using S&P 500 index options indicate that the GARCH components with leverage VTS estimate is most accurate. The poorer hedging performance of the alternative models suggests that volatility term structure shifts are related to the magnitude and level of recent returns. Strong evidence is obtained for mean-reversion in volatility.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2451/26976
Appears in Collections:Finance Working Papers

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
wpa96024.pdf1.84 MBAdobe PDFView/Open


Items in FDA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.