The Leverage Effect and the Basket-Index Put Spread
63 Pages Posted: 28 May 2017 Last revised: 19 Jul 2018
Date Written: January 1, 2018
Abstract
Benchmark models that exogenously specify equity dynamics cannot explain the large spread in prices between put options written on individual banks and options written on the bank index during the financial crisis. However, theory requires that asset dynamics be specified exogenously and that endogenously determined equity dynamics exhibit a "leverage effect" that increases put prices by fattening the left tail of the distribution. The leverage effect is larger for puts on individual stocks than for puts on the index, thus increasing the basket-index spread. Time-series and cross-sectional variation in the leverage effect explains option prices well.
Keywords: basket-index put spread, bank, leverage effect, financial crisis, bailout, option pricing
JEL Classification: E44, G01, G13, G21, G28
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation