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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 74 No. 2 2004

Limited arbitrage and short sales restrictions: evidence from the options markets

Eli Ofek1; Matthew Richardson1,2; ROBERT F. WHI℡AW2,1

1 New York University · 2 National Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract

We investigate empirically the well-known put–call parity no-arbitrage relation in the presence of short sales restrictions. Violations of put–call parity are asymmetric in the direction of short sales constraints, and their magnitudes are strongly related to the cost and difficulty of short selling. These violations are also related to both the maturity of the option and the level of valuations in the stock market, consistent with a behavioral finance theory of over-optimistic stock investors and market segmentation. Moreover, both the size of put–call parity violations and the cost of short selling are significant predictors of future returns for individual stocks.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2003.05.008
Volume
74
Issue
2
Pages
305-342
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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