IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v17y2016i6d10.1057_jam.2016.6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Option spread trades: Returns on directional and volatility trades

Author

Listed:
  • Ryan McKeon

    (Department of Finance, School of Business Administration, University of San Diego)

Abstract

Option spread trades can be set up in a variety of different ways and offer flexibility for an investor to target specific goals in terms of risk-return profile. I study different setups of Bull spread trades with Calls to illustrate which setups are largely directional trades and which setups are largely volatility trades. Analytical derivations reveal that setups involving short positions in out-the-money Calls offer the strongest directional plays, whereas other setups are mostly long or short volatility. An analysis of spread returns using S&P 500 Index options data reveals high average returns, strong negative skewness in short volatility setups, and positive skewness in long volatility setups. Returns are heavily affected by costs of trading, but setups including short positions in out-the-money Calls return strong average returns even after costs. Factor analysis reveals that positive alpha is more readily obtained for trades held until maturity rather than for trades closed out before maturity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan McKeon, 2016. "Option spread trades: Returns on directional and volatility trades," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(6), pages 422-433, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:17:y:2016:i:6:d:10.1057_jam.2016.6
    DOI: 10.1057/jam.2016.6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/jam.2016.6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/jam.2016.6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Coval & Tyler Shumway, 2001. "Expected Option Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 983-1009, June.
    2. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger & Sandås, Patrik, 2010. "Does information drive trading in option strategies?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2370-2385, October.
    3. Cao, Jie & Han, Bing, 2013. "Cross section of option returns and idiosyncratic stock volatility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 231-249.
    4. Christopher S. Jones, 2006. "A Nonlinear Factor Analysis of S&P 500 Index Option Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(5), pages 2325-2363, October.
    5. Nicole Branger & Christian Schlag, 2007. "Option Betas: Risk Measures For Options," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 10(07), pages 1137-1157.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Birru, Justin & Wang, Baolian, 2016. "Nominal price illusion," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 578-598.
    2. Alejandro Bernales & Thanos Verousis & Nikolaos Voukelatos & Mengyu Zhang, 2020. "What do we know about individual equity options?," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 67-91, January.
    3. Peter Reichling & Anastasiia Zbandut, 2017. "Costs of capital under credit risk," FEMM Working Papers 170003, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    4. Mi‐Hsiu Chiang & Hsin‐Yu Chiu & Robin K. Chou, 2021. "Relevance of the disposition effect on the options market: New evidence," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 75-106, March.
    5. Matthias Buechner & Bryan T. Kelly, 2021. "A Factor Model For Option Returns," NBER Working Papers 29369, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Büchner, Matthias & Kelly, Bryan, 2022. "A factor model for option returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1140-1161.
    7. Jacobs, Kris & Li, Bingxin, 2023. "Option Returns, Risk Premiums, and Demand Pressure in Energy Markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. Peter Christoffersen & Ruslan Goyenko & Kris Jacobs & Mehdi Karoui, 2018. "Illiquidity Premia in the Equity Options Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 811-851.
    9. Kanne, Stefan & Korn, Olaf & Uhrig-Homburg, Marliese, 2023. "Stock illiquidity and option returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    10. Bjørn Eraker, 2013. "The performance of model based option trading strategies," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, April.
    11. David Volkmann, 2021. "Explaining S&P500 option returns: an implied risk-adjusted approach," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 29(2), pages 665-685, June.
    12. Kevin Aretz & Ming-Tsung Lin & Ser-Huang Poon, 2023. "Moneyness, Underlying Asset Volatility, and the Cross-Section of Option Returns," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(1), pages 289-323.
    13. Ramachandran, Lakshmi Shankar & Tayal, Jitendra, 2021. "Mispricing, short-sale constraints, and the cross-section of option returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 297-321.
    14. Kanne, Stefan & Korn, Olaf & Uhrig-Homburg, Marliese, 2016. "Stock Illiquidity, option prices, and option returns," CFR Working Papers 16-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    15. Pratish Patel & Andrew Raquel & Savannah Chadwick, 2024. "The cash-secured put-write strategy and the variance risk premium," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(1), pages 31-50, February.
    16. Yang, Shuwen & Aretz, Kevin & Liu, Hening & Zhang, Yuzhao, 2022. "Consumption risks in option returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 285-302.
    17. Biao Guo & Hai Lin, 2020. "Volatility and jump risk in option returns," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(11), pages 1767-1792, November.
    18. George M. Constantinides & Michal Czerwonko & Stylianos Perrakis, 2020. "Mispriced index option portfolios," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(2), pages 297-330, June.
    19. Chaudhury, Mo, 2017. "Volatility and expected option returns: A note," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-4.
    20. Jose Faias & Pedro Santa-Clara, 2011. "Optimal Option Portfolio Strategies," EcoMod2011 3041, EcoMod.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:17:y:2016:i:6:d:10.1057_jam.2016.6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.