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Simple and reliable way to compute option-based risk-neutral distributions
This paper describes a method for computing risk-neutral density functions based on the option-implied volatility smile. Its aim is to reduce complexity and provide cookbook-style guidance through the estimation process. The technique is robust and avoids violations of option no-arbitrage restrictions that can lead to negative probabilities and other implausible results. I give examples for equities, foreign exchange, and long-term interest rates.
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Risk-neutral systemic risk indicators
This paper describes a set of indicators of systemic risk computed from current market prices of equity and equity index options. It displays results from a prototype version, computed daily from January 2006 to January 2013. The indicators represent a systemic risk event as the realization of an extreme loss on a portfolio of large-intermediary equities. The technique for computing them combines risk-neutral return distributions with implied return correlations drawn from option prices, tying together the single-firm return distributions via a copula to simulate the joint distribution and ...
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Interbank interest rates as term structure indicators
Interbank fixed income claims are a rich but neglected source of information on the term structure of interest rates and interest rate expectations. The first half of this paper describes the information content of two types of over-the-counter interest rate derivatives, forward rate agreements and interest rate swaps. Interbank interest rates and derivatives lend themselves well to a particular technique for fitting zero-coupon curves. The second half of this paper present this technique, along with some examples of how it can be used to gain insights into market views on interest rates and ...
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Option-implied probability distributions and currency excess returns
This paper describes a method of extracting the risk-neutral probability distribution of future exchange rates from option prices. In foreign exchange markets interbank option pricing conventions make possible reliable inferences about risk-neutral probability distributions with relatively little data. Moments drawn from risk-neutral exchange rate distribution are used to explore several issues related to the puzzle of excess returns in currency markets. Tests of the international capital asset pricing model using risk-neutral moments as explanatory variables indicate that option-based ...
Journal Article
The Federal Reserve’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility
The securitization markets for consumer and business asset-backed securities (ABS) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), which supply a substantial share of credit to consumers and small businesses, came to a near-complete halt in the fall of 2008, as investors responded to a drastic decline in funding liquidity by curtailing their participation in these markets. In response, the Federal Reserve introduced the TALF program, which extended term loans collateralized by securities to buyers of certain high-quality ABS and CMBS, as part of a broad array of emergency liquidity measures ...
Journal Article
Implied rate correlations and policy expectations
Certain financial instruments provide information on expectations of future interest rate movements. One relatively new instrument is yield curve options, which allow investors to take financial positions on a range of possible future interest rates. These options can shed light on the views of financial markets regarding future monetary policy at a time when short-term interest rates are near zero.
Journal Article
Currency option markets and exchange rates: a case study of the U.S. dollar in March 1995
Some market observers attribute the dollar's recent drop against the mark and yen to a type of currency option known as the knockout option. Although knockouts did contribute modestly to the dollar's fall, their full impact was felt to a much greater extent in the option markets.
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Using option prices to estimate realignment probabilities in the European Monetary System
Risk reversals are a combination of options from which price information about market expectations of future exchange rates can be extracted. This paper describes a procedure for estimating the market's perceived probability distribution of future exchange rates from the prices of risk reversals and other currency options. This procedure is used to estimate the ex ante probability of a realignment of the French franc and pound sterling. The procedure for estimating the realignment probabilities relies on the jump-diffusion model of exchange rate behavior and the resulting option pricing ...