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A Term Structure Model for VIX Futures
Author(s) -
Huskaj Bujar,
Nossman Marcus
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of futures markets
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.88
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1096-9934
pISSN - 0270-7314
DOI - 10.1002/fut.21550
Subject(s) - futures contract , econometrics , economics , kurtosis , volatility (finance) , term (time) , skewness , financial economics , mathematics , statistics , physics , quantum mechanics
This study develops a term structure model for VIX futures. Instead of deriving the VIX futures price from a model for the instantaneous variance of the S&P 500 or a model for the VIX, the VIX futures price dynamics are specified exogenously. The empirical features of VIX futures returns (positive skewness, excess kurtosis, and a decreasing volatility term structure for longer term expirations) are captured by assuming that they are normal inverse Gaussian distributed and scaled by a volatility function that is dependent on the maturity. The usefulness of the resulting model is illustrated in two applications: risk management (via calculating value at risk (VaR)) and asset pricing (via pricing hypothetical VIX options). The results show that the model provides a good fit for the empirical term structure of VIX futures, produces good VaR estimates, and is promising for use in pricing VIX options. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 33:421‐442, 2013