We incorporate a time-varying negative relationship for implied volatility and underlying price into the delta hedging problem, where traders aim to minimize the variance of changes in the value of an option position by trading an appropriate amount of the underlying asset. We show that volatility-price elasticity is mean-reverting and embed predictions of the elasticity in a hedge ratio model that incorporates the negative volatility-price relationship. Our tests show that when applied to index options data, the proposed approach improves hedging performance over methods that rely solely on the long-run mean of the volatility-price relationship.

We use proprietary data on intraday transactions at a futures brokerage to analyze how implied leverage influences trading performance. Across all investors, leverage is negatively related to performance, due partly to increased trading costs and partly to forced liquidations resulting from margin calls. Defining skill out‐of‐sample, we find that relative performance differentials across unskilled and skilled investors persist. Unskilled investors' leverage amplifies losses from lottery preferences and the disposition effect. Leverage stimulates liquidity provision by skilled investors, and enhances returns. Although regulatory increases in required margins decrease skilled investors' returns, they enhance overall returns, and attenuate return volatility.