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The Review of Asset Pricing Studies Vol. 10 No. 4 2020

Volatility Markets Underreacted to the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ing-Haw Cheng

Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

open access

Abstract

VIX futures prices rose slowly in late February and early March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Futures price premiums, defined as futures prices minus real-time statistical forecasts of future VIX values, turned sharply negative and remained negative until mid-April. Trading strategies based on estimated premiums profited from the subsequent increase in market volatility and equity market crash. The underreaction of futures prices to growing pandemic risks poses a puzzle for standard asset pricing models.

DOI
10.1093/rapstu/raaa010
Volume
10
Issue
4
Pages
635-668
Language
en
Sources
openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

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