Working Papers
Oil Jump Risk (Job Market Paper)
We show that the innovation in the risk-neutral probability of large downward and upward jumps in oil prices has a considerable predictive power for important economic indicators such as GDP growth, consumption growth, and total investment. In addition, we observe that the upside jump risk probability is a significant predictor of stock market index return and the returns of oil futures. Furthermore, the upside jump probability is a significant and relatively strong predictor of oil market fundamentals including inventory growth, demand growth, and OPEC’s production growth. Upside jump risk is also a driver of the cross-section of stock returns before the U.S. oil production increase in 2011. The average monthly return for the high-low upside jump risk exposure portfolio is -0.94% and -1.13%, using the 1996-2014 and 1996-2011 time periods respectively. The implications of the variance risk for the cross-section of stock returns vanishes after controlling for the large upside and downside jump risks. The shale revolution and considerable increase of the US oil production have killed the effect of upside risk premium after 2011. During the sub-period 2011-2014, the variance risk premium gets significant again, like it was before 2000.
The Risks of Skewness and Kurtosis in Oil Market and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns (with Craig Pirrong)
We show that exposure to the risk of kurtosis in oil market drives the cross-section of stock returns from 1996 to 2014. The average monthly difference between the return of portfolio of stocks with low exposure and high exposure to the risk of kurtosis is -0.37%, showing that higher exposure to oil’s kurtosis risk will be penalized by lower average returns. We are able to confirm the significance of kurtosis risk within the statistical framework of Carhart 4-factor model. In contrast to the skewness risk, which is only a significant player in some of the sub-periods, kurtosis risk is keeping its significance through all sub-periods, as well as after taking market moments into account and within different maturities. The significance of the risk of skewness gets more evident moving from shorter to longer maturities. The risk of volatility, which has been shown to be a significant-priced risk in the cross-section of stock returns in literature, loses its significance after controlling for the third and fourth moments.
The Fundamental, Speculative and Macroeconomic Determinants of Variance and Skew Risk Premia in Oil Market (with Craig Pirrong)
Using the model-independent approaches of Trolle and Schwartz (2008) and Kozhan et al (2013), we estimate the Variance Risk Premium and Skew Risk Premium for oil market. After estimation, the contribution of the paper is twofold. First, we try to figure out which variables can describe the variation in variance and skew risk premium and the risk-neutral skewness. The results show that we are able to describe a considerable portion of the variation in all three variables using speculative and macroeconomic factors and most of the variation is being described by by the latter group of variables. We also try to capture the effect of fundamentals of oil market on these variables. The results show that the fundamentals are able to describe big portion of variation in these three variables. Second, we try to predict the return of delta-hedged and delta-vega hedged option portfolios and also oil futures return. The results show that variance risk premium is a significant predictor of delta-hedged portfolio cumulative return with a positive sign while skew risk premium can describe the cumulative return of the delta-Vega Hedged portfolio with negative sign. The results also show that both variance and skew risk premia are significant predictors of cumulative futures return with different signs.
Oil Jump Risk (Job Market Paper)
We show that the innovation in the risk-neutral probability of large downward and upward jumps in oil prices has a considerable predictive power for important economic indicators such as GDP growth, consumption growth, and total investment. In addition, we observe that the upside jump risk probability is a significant predictor of stock market index return and the returns of oil futures. Furthermore, the upside jump probability is a significant and relatively strong predictor of oil market fundamentals including inventory growth, demand growth, and OPEC’s production growth. Upside jump risk is also a driver of the cross-section of stock returns before the U.S. oil production increase in 2011. The average monthly return for the high-low upside jump risk exposure portfolio is -0.94% and -1.13%, using the 1996-2014 and 1996-2011 time periods respectively. The implications of the variance risk for the cross-section of stock returns vanishes after controlling for the large upside and downside jump risks. The shale revolution and considerable increase of the US oil production have killed the effect of upside risk premium after 2011. During the sub-period 2011-2014, the variance risk premium gets significant again, like it was before 2000.
The Risks of Skewness and Kurtosis in Oil Market and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns (with Craig Pirrong)
We show that exposure to the risk of kurtosis in oil market drives the cross-section of stock returns from 1996 to 2014. The average monthly difference between the return of portfolio of stocks with low exposure and high exposure to the risk of kurtosis is -0.37%, showing that higher exposure to oil’s kurtosis risk will be penalized by lower average returns. We are able to confirm the significance of kurtosis risk within the statistical framework of Carhart 4-factor model. In contrast to the skewness risk, which is only a significant player in some of the sub-periods, kurtosis risk is keeping its significance through all sub-periods, as well as after taking market moments into account and within different maturities. The significance of the risk of skewness gets more evident moving from shorter to longer maturities. The risk of volatility, which has been shown to be a significant-priced risk in the cross-section of stock returns in literature, loses its significance after controlling for the third and fourth moments.
The Fundamental, Speculative and Macroeconomic Determinants of Variance and Skew Risk Premia in Oil Market (with Craig Pirrong)
Using the model-independent approaches of Trolle and Schwartz (2008) and Kozhan et al (2013), we estimate the Variance Risk Premium and Skew Risk Premium for oil market. After estimation, the contribution of the paper is twofold. First, we try to figure out which variables can describe the variation in variance and skew risk premium and the risk-neutral skewness. The results show that we are able to describe a considerable portion of the variation in all three variables using speculative and macroeconomic factors and most of the variation is being described by by the latter group of variables. We also try to capture the effect of fundamentals of oil market on these variables. The results show that the fundamentals are able to describe big portion of variation in these three variables. Second, we try to predict the return of delta-hedged and delta-vega hedged option portfolios and also oil futures return. The results show that variance risk premium is a significant predictor of delta-hedged portfolio cumulative return with a positive sign while skew risk premium can describe the cumulative return of the delta-Vega Hedged portfolio with negative sign. The results also show that both variance and skew risk premia are significant predictors of cumulative futures return with different signs.
