IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurjfi/v12y2006i6-7p583-603.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Smiles Exist in Foreign Exchange Options Markets: Isolating Components of the Risk Neutral Process

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Tompkins

Abstract

Prices of foreign exchange options systematically diverge from those consistent with several previous option pricing models. This paper examines whether alternative models better explaining the empirical dynamics of the foreign exchange futures markets can yield implied volatility surfaces similar to those observed for options on Foreign Exchange futures. The most suitable alternative models include jumps and stochastic volatility. The inclusion of both these factors introduces unspanned sources of risk and therefore, the martingale measure will not necessarily be unique. However, it is not the objective of this research to propose which martingale measure is optimal; the aim, instead, is to gain a deeper understanding of the properties (and particularly the order of magnitude) of the risk premium. This is done by choosing a feasible martingale measure (based upon the no arbitrage condition), assuming no market price of jump or stochastic volatility risks, and price options under this measure. The implied volatility biases from model-based option prices are then compared to the actual implied volatility surfaces for options on these markets. The systematic and substantive differences that are found suggest a negative risk premium, which is a relatively more important (and universal) component in FX option pricing than previously reported. Furthermore, it appears that the relative risk premium across strike price and time is similar across four foreign exchange options markets. This may imply that some systematic mechanism causes the risk premium in these markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Tompkins, 2006. "Why Smiles Exist in Foreign Exchange Options Markets: Isolating Components of the Risk Neutral Process," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(6-7), pages 583-603.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:12:y:2006:i:6-7:p:583-603
    DOI: 10.1080/13518470500531150
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13518470500531150
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13518470500531150?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. Pan, Jun, 2002. "The jump-risk premia implicit in options: evidence from an integrated time-series study," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 3-50, January.
    2. Elisa Nicolato & Emmanouil Venardos, 2003. "Option Pricing in Stochastic Volatility Models of the Ornstein‐Uhlenbeck type," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 445-466, October.
    3. Gallant, A. Ronald & Tauchen, George, 1996. "Which Moments to Match?," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 657-681, October.
    4. R. Brian Balyeat, 2002. "Economic significance of risk premiums in the S&P 500 option market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(12), pages 1147-1178, December.
    5. Ho, Mun S & Perraudin, William R M & Sorensen, Bent E, 1996. "A Continuous-Time Arbitrage-Pricing Model with Stochastic Volatility and Jumps," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 14(1), pages 31-43, January.
    6. Baillie, Richard T & Bollerslev, Tim, 2002. "The Message in Daily Exchange Rates: A Conditional-Variance Tale," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 60-68, January.
    7. Duffie, Darrell & Singleton, Kenneth J, 1993. "Simulated Moments Estimation of Markov Models of Asset Prices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(4), pages 929-952, July.
    8. Bates, David S, 1996. "Jumps and Stochastic Volatility: Exchange Rate Processes Implicit in Deutsche Mark Options," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(1), pages 69-107.
    9. George J. Jiang, 1999. "Stochastic Volatility And Jump-Diffusion — Implications On Option Pricing," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(04), pages 409-440.
    10. Gurdip Bakshi & Nikunj Kapadia & Dilip Madan, 2003. "Stock Return Characteristics, Skew Laws, and the Differential Pricing of Individual Equity Options," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 101-143.
    11. David G. Hobson & L. C. G. Rogers, 1998. "Complete Models with Stochastic Volatility," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 27-48, January.
    12. Bollerslev, Tim & Chou, Ray Y. & Kroner, Kenneth F., 1992. "ARCH modeling in finance : A review of the theory and empirical evidence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1-2), pages 5-59.
    13. Bates, David S, 1991. "The Crash of '87: Was It Expected? The Evidence from Options Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 1009-1044, July.
    14. Ding, Zhuanxin & Granger, Clive W. J. & Engle, Robert F., 1993. "A long memory property of stock market returns and a new model," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 83-106, June.
    15. Philippe Jorion, 1988. "On Jump Processes in the Foreign Exchange and Stock Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(4), pages 427-445.
    16. repec:cup:etheor:v:12:y:1996:i:4:p:657-81 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Barone-Adesi, Giovanni & Whaley, Robert E, 1987. "Efficient Analytic Approximation of American Option Values," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 301-320, June.
    18. Garman, Mark B. & Kohlhagen, Steven W., 1983. "Foreign currency option values," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 231-237, December.
    19. Black, Fischer, 1976. "The pricing of commodity contracts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 167-179.
    20. Bates, David S., 2000. "Post-'87 crash fears in the S&P 500 futures option market," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 181-238.
    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. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    2. 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.
    3. Torben G. Andersen & Luca Benzoni & Jesper Lund, 2002. "An Empirical Investigation of Continuous‐Time Equity Return Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 1239-1284, June.
    4. Michael Rockinger & Maria Semenova, 2005. "Estimation of Jump-Diffusion Process vis Empirical Characteristic Function," FAME Research Paper Series rp150, International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering.
    5. David S. Bates, 1995. "Testing Option Pricing Models," NBER Working Papers 5129, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Lin, Yueh-Neng & Lin, Anchor Y., 2016. "Using VIX futures to hedge forward implied volatility risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 88-106.
    7. Mikhail Chernov & A. Ronald Gallant & Eric Ghysels & George Tauchen, 1999. "A New Class of Stochastic Volatility Models with Jumps: Theory and Estimation," CIRANO Working Papers 99s-48, CIRANO.
    8. Andersen, Torben G. & Bollerslev, Tim & Christoffersen, Peter F. & Diebold, Francis X., 2005. "Volatility forecasting," CFS Working Paper Series 2005/08, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    9. Shackleton, Mark B. & Taylor, Stephen J. & Yu, Peng, 2010. "A multi-horizon comparison of density forecasts for the S&P 500 using index returns and option prices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2678-2693, November.
    10. Andersen, Torben G. & Bollerslev, Tim & Christoffersen, Peter F. & Diebold, Francis X., 2006. "Volatility and Correlation Forecasting," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 777-878, Elsevier.
    11. Bingxin Li, 2020. "Option-implied filtering: evidence from the GARCH option pricing model," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 1037-1057, April.
    12. Neumann, Maximilian & Prokopczuk, Marcel & Wese Simen, Chardin, 2016. "Jump and variance risk premia in the S&P 500," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 72-83.
    13. Benzoni, Luca & Collin-Dufresne, Pierre & Goldstein, Robert S., 2011. "Explaining asset pricing puzzles associated with the 1987 market crash," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 552-573, September.
    14. Torben G. Andersen & Tim Bollerslev & Francis X. Diebold, 2003. "Some Like it Smooth, and Some Like it Rough: Untangling Continuous and Jump Components in Measuring, Modeling, and Forecasting Asset Return Volatility," PIER Working Paper Archive 03-025, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 01 Sep 2003.
    15. Bronka Rzepkowski, 2001. "Pouvoir prédictif de la volatilité implicite dans le prix des options de change," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 148(2), pages 71-97.
    16. Torben G. Andersen & Tim Bollerslev & Francis X. Diebold & Paul Labys, 1999. "The Distribution of Exchange Rate Volatility," New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires 99-059, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-.
    17. Carl Chiarella & Xue-Zhong He & Christina Sklibosios Nikitopoulos, 2015. "Derivative Security Pricing," Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-662-45906-5, May.
    18. Eva Ferreira & Mónica Gago & Angel León & Gonzalo Rubio, 2005. "An empirical comparison of the performance of alternative option pricing models," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 29(3), pages 483-523, September.
    19. Marian Micu, 2005. "Extracting expectations from currency option prices: a comparison of methods," Computing in Economics and Finance 2005 226, Society for Computational Economics.
    20. Koekebakker, Steen & Lien, Gudbrand D., 2002. "Term Structure of Volatility and Price Jumps in Agricultural Markets - Evidence from Option Data," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24874, European Association of Agricultural Economists.

    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:taf:eurjfi:v:12:y:2006:i:6-7:p:583-603. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJF20 .

    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.