The Journal of Finance publishes leading research across all the major fields of finance. It is one of the most widely cited journals in academic finance, and in all of economics. Each of the six issues per year reaches over 8,000 academics, finance professionals, libraries, and government and financial institutions around the world. The journal is the official publication of The American Finance Association, the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.
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Search results: 8.
Information Diversity and Market Behavior
Published: 03/01/1982 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1982.tb01097.x
STEPHEN FIGLEWSKI
The paper addresses two major issues raised by information diversity in a speculative market. First, we analyze what property of an investor's information leads to an expected speculative profit and show that independence is more important than accuracy. Second, we consider whether the market price must become fully efficient, in the sense that every investor's information is accurately discounted, when traders use it rationally as an information source. We prove that for any information structure there is a unique equilibrium weighting of investor beliefs at which the price is fully efficient and also every trader's expected profit is zero. Except for special structures, however, this equilibrium need not be attained in finite time.
Information Diversity and Market Behavior
Published: 03/01/1982 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1982.tb01097.x
STEPHEN FIGLEWSKI
The paper addresses two major issues raised by information diversity in a speculative market. First, we analyze what property of an investor's information leads to an expected speculative profit and show that independence is more important than accuracy. Second, we consider whether the market price must become fully efficient, in the sense that every investor's information is accurately discounted, when traders use it rationally as an information source. We prove that for any information structure there is a unique equilibrium weighting of investor beliefs at which the price is fully efficient and also every trader's expected profit is zero. Except for special structures, however, this equilibrium need not be attained in finite time.
Options Arbitrage in Imperfect Markets
Published: 12/01/1989 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1989.tb02654.x
STEPHEN FIGLEWSKI
Option valuation models are based on an arbitrage strategy—hedging the option against the underlying asset and rebalancing continuously until expiration—that is only possible in a frictionless market. This paper simulates the impact of market imperfections and other problems with the “standard” arbitrage trade, including uncertain volatility, transactions costs, indivisibilities, and rebalancing only at discrete intervals. We find that, in an actual market such as that for stock index options, the standard arbitrage is exposed to such large risk and transactions costs that it can only establish very wide bounds on equilibrium options prices. This has important implications for price determination in options markets, as well as for testing of valuation models.
Market Risk and Model Risk for a Financial Institution Writing Options
Published: 12/17/2002 | DOI: 10.1111/0022-1082.00152
T. Clifton Green, Stephen Figlewski
Derivatives valuation and risk management involve heavy use of quantitative models. To develop a quantitative assessment of model risk as it affects the basic option writing strategy that might be followed by a financial institution, we conduct an empirical simulation, with and without hedging, using data from 1976 to 1996. Results indicate that imperfect models and inaccurate volatility forecasts create sizable risk exposure for option writers. We consider to what extent the damage due to model risk can be limited by pricing options using a higher volatility than the best estimate from historical data.
Options, Short Sales, and Market Completeness
Published: 06/01/1993 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1993.tb04738.x
STEPHEN FIGLEWSKI, GWENDOLYN P. WEBB
This paper presents empirical evidence that trading in options contributes to both transactional and informational efficiency of the stock market by reducing the effect of constraints on short sales. The significantly higher average level of short interest exhibited by optionable stocks supports the argument that options facilitate short selling. We also find significant effects on option prices, related to the short interest in the underlying stock. We then present evidence that options also increase information efficiency. Earlier work, that is replicated and extended here, has suggested that short sale constraints cause stock prices to underweight negative information. Options appear to reduce that effect.
Optimal Aggregation of Money Supply Forecasts: Accuracy, Profitability and Market Efficiency
Published: 06/01/1983 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1983.tb02497.x
STEPHEN FIGLEWSKI, THOMAS URICH
We present a general procedure for aggregating expert forecasts which exploits regularities in the structure of information within the forecaster population. Specific information structures lead to aggregation methods which adjust for additive bias, differences in individual accuracy, and correlation among forecasts. As an application, we construct composite predictions of the weekly change in the money supply from forecasts made by twenty major securities dealers, for which high positive correlation is found to be a significant characteristic. Due to instability in the information structure, our methods cannot improve on the accuracy of a simple average in this case. However, they do capture information about the correlation among money supply forecasts which is not fully impounded in short‐term interest rates. Forecasts from our models accurately predict the direction of price changes for Treasury bills and Treasury bill futures after a money supply announcement.