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The Enron Bankruptcy: When did the options market in Enron lose it’s smirk?

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  • Bruce Mizrach

Abstract

The Enron Corporation went from a $65 billion dollar market capitalization to bankruptcy in just 16 months. Using statistical techniques for extracting the implied probability distributions built into option prices, I examine the market’s expectation of Enron’s risk of collapse. I find that the options market remained far too optimistic about the stock until just weeks before their bankruptcy filing. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006

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  • Bruce Mizrach, 2006. "The Enron Bankruptcy: When did the options market in Enron lose it’s smirk?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 365-382, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:27:y:2006:i:4:p:365-382
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-006-0043-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Christoffersen, Peter & Jacobs, Kris & Chang, Bo Young, 2013. "Forecasting with Option-Implied Information," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 581-656, Elsevier.
    2. Sol Kim & Geul Lee, 2017. "Lead–Lag Relationship Between Returns and Implied Moments: Evidence from KOSPI 200 Intraday Options Data," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(03), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Bruce Mizrach, 2007. "Recovering Probabilistic Information From Options Prices and the Underlying," Departmental Working Papers 200702, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    4. Ehret, Michael, 2014. "Financial socialism: The role of financial economics in economic disorganization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2686-2692.

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