An Exploration of Realized Volatility and Returns in the Chinese Stock Market

This paper uses high-frequency stock index data to construct realized volatilities for the Chinese stock market and applies in-sample and out-of-sample to test the predictive power of realized volatility on Chinese stock market returns. The empirical results show that realized volatility can significantly predict the excess return of the Chinese stock market in the next month, and the in-sample and out-of-sample regression models are positive, and the out-of-sample The p-value of the regression model is significant. And after controlling for a range of other stock predictor variables, we find that the regression coefficient of realized volatility is still significant, and we find that after adding realized volatility, the in-sample adj- increases with the inclusion of realized volatility, suggesting that realized volatility does have components that are not explained by other economic variables. Also based on a different construction method, the realized variance still has significant predictive power after averaging the realized variance. After combining two different realized variance indicators, the predictive power is still better. In terms of economic interpretation, this paper finds that the predictive power of realized variance on stock returns is through influencing the turnover rate (market trading activity), which in turn influences stock market returns. We find that realized volatility has a significant effect on the turnover rate, and when we use realized volatility to predict the turnover rate, which in turn predicts the excess return, we find that the coefficient is highly significant, indicating that realized volatility can indeed cause changes in excess return by affecting the turnover rate.

A Note on Forecasting the Historical Realized Variance of Oil-Price Movements: The Role of Gold-to-Silver and Gold-to-Platinum Price Ratios

We examine the predictive value of gold-to-silver and gold-to-platinum price ratios, as proxies for global risks affecting the realized variance (RV) of oil-price movements, using monthly data over the longest available periods of 1915:01–2021:03 and 1968:01–2021:03, respectively. Using the two ratios, we find statistically significant evidence of in-sample predictability for increases in RV for both ratios. This finding also translates into statistically significant out-of-sample forecasting gains derived from these two ratios for RV. Given the importance of real-time forecasts of the volatility of oil-price movements, our results have important implications for investors and policymakers.

El Niño, La Niña, and the Forecastability of the Realized Variance of Heating Oil Price Movements

We use the heterogenous autoregressive (HAR) model to compute out-of-sample forecasts of the monthly realized variance (RV) of movements of the spot and futures price of heating oil. We extend the HAR–RV model to include the role of El Niño and La Niña episodes, as captured by the Equatorial Southern Oscillation Index (EQSOI). Using data from June 1986 to April 2021, we show evidence for several model configurations that both El Niño and La Niña phases contain information useful for forecasting subsequent to the realized variance of price movements beyond the predictive value already captured by the HAR–RV model. The predictive value of La Niña phases, however, seems to be somewhat stronger than the predictive value of El Niño phases. Our results have important implications for investors, as well as from the perspective of sustainable decisions involving the environment.

Forecasting the Volatility of Crude Oil: The Role of Uncertainty and Spillovers

We use a dataset for the group of G7 countries and China to study the out-of-sample predictive value of uncertainty and its international spillovers for the realized variance of crude oil (West Texas Intermediate and Brent) over the sample period from 1996Q1 to 2020Q4. Using the Lasso estimator, we found evidence that uncertainty and international spillovers had predictive value for the realized variance at intermediate (two quarters) and long (one year) forecasting horizons in several of the forecasting models that we studied. This result holds also for upside (good) and downside (bad) variance, and irrespective of whether we used a recursive or a rolling estimation window. Our results have important implications for investors and policymakers.

Uncertainty, Spillovers, and Forecasts of the Realized Variance of Gold Returns

Using data for the group of G7 countries and China for the sample period 1996Q1 to 2020Q4, we study the role of uncertainty and spillovers for the out-of-sample forecasting of the realized variance of gold returns and its upside (good) and downside (bad) counterparts. We go beyond earlier research in that we do not focus exclusively on U.S.-based measures of uncertainty, and in that we account for international spillovers of uncertainty. Our results, based on the Lasso estimator, show that, across the various model configurations that we study, uncertainty has a more systematic effect on out-of-sample forecast accuracy than spillovers. Our results have important implications for investors in terms of, for example, pricing of related derivative securities and the development of portfolio-allocation strategies.

The Informational Content of High-Frequency Option Prices

We propose the option realized variance as an observable variable to summarize the information from high-frequency option data. This variable aggregates intraday option returns from midquote prices to compute an option’s total variability for a given day, providing additional information about the jump activity in the data generating process. Using the S&P 500 index time series and options data, this paper documents the performance of this realized measure in predicting the index realized variance as well as the equity and variance risk premiums. We estimate an option pricing model and analyze its parameter estimates. Our results show that excluding high-frequency option information produces significant differences in variance jump parameters, estimated risk premiums, and option pricing errors. This paper was accepted by Tyler Shumway, finance.