Forecasting Volatility in the Presence of Limits to Arbitrage
Forthcoming in the Journal of Futures Markets
30 Pages Posted: 20 Sep 2014
Date Written: August 12, 2014
Abstract
In this paper, we develop a novel model to forecast the volatility of S&P 500 futures returns by considering measures of limits to arbitrage. When arbitrageurs face constraints on their trading strategies, option prices can become disconnected from fundamentals, resulting in a distortion that reflects the limits to arbitrage. The corresponding market based implied volatility will therefore also contain these distortions. Our contributions are both conceptual and empirical. Conceptually, the limits to arbitrage framework can shed light on relative asset prices as exemplified by this particular study. Empirically, our volatility forecasting model explains 71% of the variation in realized volatility, a substantial improvement over a naive forecast based only on lagged realized volatility, which produces an R2 of 53%.
Keywords: Volatility Forecasting, Implied Volatility, Limits to Arbitrage
JEL Classification: G1, G12,G13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation