Login | Register

Option Implied Risk Aversion under Transaction Costs: An Empirical Study

Title:

Option Implied Risk Aversion under Transaction Costs: An Empirical Study

Zhou, Siying (2018) Option Implied Risk Aversion under Transaction Costs: An Empirical Study. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

[thumbnail of Zhou_MScFinance_S2018.pdf]
Preview
Text (application/pdf)
Zhou_MScFinance_S2018.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Spectrum Terms of Access.
1MB

Abstract

We empirically estimate the option implied coefficient of risk aversion of the market maker for European S&P 500 index options (SPX), involving asset allocation and option market making problems in the presence of proportional transaction costs in trading the underlying asset. We assume that the market maker has constant relative risk aversion utility and holds a two-asset portfolio consisting of the underlying and the riskless asset for a fixed, finite investment horizon which exceeds the option maturity, and she enters a position in the option market with an optimized portfolio. We follow the discrete time approach of Czerwonko and Perrakis (2016a, 2016b) to derive the market maker’s simple investment policy and value functions, and apply a value matching condition to find option upper and lower bounds. Data on the S&P 500 index and the SPX options is collected over the period 1996–2016, 244 months in total, and the major variable, volatility, is re-estimated under the physical distribution. By matching observed SPX prices with numerically derived reservation prices, we estimate the level of implied risk aversion. Results show that in general, the market maker has lower risk aversion compared to investors who she trades with in order to accomplish a trade. A pattern that high risk aversion precedes rare market events is also exhibited, suggesting that a market maker may adopt a waiting policy if market events can be anticipated due to the information asymmetry.

Divisions:Concordia University > John Molson School of Business > Finance
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Zhou, Siying
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M. Sc.
Program:Administration (Finance option)
Date:18 April 2018
Thesis Supervisor(s):Perrakis, Stylianos
ID Code:983786
Deposited By: SIYING ZHOU
Deposited On:11 Jun 2018 03:51
Last Modified:11 Jun 2018 03:51
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads per month over past year

Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
- Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
Back to top Back to top