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Overreactions in the Options Market
Author(s) -
STEIN JEREMY
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1989.tb02635.x
Subject(s) - implied volatility , volatility (finance) , economics , volatility smile , maturity (psychological) , financial economics , econometrics , volatility swap , forward volatility , variance swap , psychology , developmental psychology
This paper examines the “term structure” of options' implied volatilities, using data on S&P 100 index options. Because implied volatility is strongly mean reverting, the implied volatility on a longer maturity option should move by less than one percent in response to a one percent move in the implied volatility of a shorter maturity option. Empirically, this elasticity turns out to be larger than suggested by rational expectations theory—long‐maturity options tend to “overreact” to changes in the implied volatility of short‐maturity options.