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Futures‐Trading Activity and Stock Price Volatility
Author(s) -
BESSEMBINDER HENDRIK,
SEGUIN PAUL J.
Publication year - 1992
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.1540-6261.1992.tb04695.x
Subject(s) - futures contract , financial economics , volatility (finance) , economics , open outcry , equity (law) , market liquidity , algorithmic trading , econometrics , monetary economics , alternative trading system , political science , law
We examine whether greater futures‐trading activity (volume and open interest) is associated with greater equity volatility. We partition each trading activity series into expected and unexpected components, and document that while equity volatility covaries positively with unexpected futures‐trading volume, it is negatively related to forecastable futures‐trading activity. Further, though futures‐trading activity is systematically related to the futures contract life cycle, we find no evidence of a relation between the futures life cycle and spot equity volatility. These findings are consistent with theories predicting that active futures markets enhance the liquidity and depth of the equity markets.