This dissertation is in the form of one survey paper and three essays on the topic of volatility. The unifying feature that permeates the entire thesis is the focus on the measurement and use of conditional second moment of equities and currencies as a measure of risk for asset pricing and policy purposes in the context of international markets. / The survey examines selected papers from the international finance literature and from the volatility literature with a focus on the theoretical and empirical relationship between first and second unconditional and conditional moments of domestic and international asset returns. It then specifically proposes several areas for investigation related to international finance topics. The first essay investigates the importance of asymmetric volatility when computing the risk premium of international assets. The results indicate that conditional second moment asymmetry is significant and time-varying. They also show that, if the price of risk is time-varying, the world market and foreign exchange risk premia estimated without allowing for time-varying asymmetry are less consistent with the data. Furthermore, they imply that asymmetry is more pronounced when the business condition is such that investors require higher compensation to bear risk. / In the second essay we start from the consideration that financial decision makers often consider the information in currency option valuations when making assessments about future exchange rates. The purpose of this essay is then to systematically assess the quality of option based volatility, interval and density forecasts. We use a unique dataset consisting of over 10 years of daily data on over-the-counter currency option prices. We find that the implied volatilities explain a large share of the variation in realized volatility. Finally, we find that wide-range interval and density forecasts are often misspecified whereas narrow-range interval forecasts are well specified. / In the third essay we examine whether the information contained in various measures of correlation among exchange rates can be used to assess future currency co-movement. We compare option-implied correlation forecasts from a dataset consisting of over 10 years of daily data on over-the-counter currency option prices to a set of return-based correlation measures and assess the relative quality of the correlation forecasts. We find that while the predictive power of implied correlation is not always superior to that of returns based correlations measures, it tends to provide the most consistent results across currencies. Predictions that use both implied and returns-based correlations generate the highest adjusted R2's, explaining up to 42 per cent of the realized correlations.

An event study is an economic tool of analysis that has begun to gain popularity in recent empirical literature. It is a technique that gives a researcher the opportunity to map out the reaction of a firm's stock to an event, usually making use of daily or monthly data. However, up to this point, event study methodology has generally been applied to more traditional phenomena capable of affecting equity value, such as dividend and macroeconomic policy announcements, and there have only been a few exceptions to this. This study looks at what impact the tragic shootings at Lonmin mine in Marikana on August 16th 2012 had on the share prices of platinum mining firms based in South Africa using event study methodology. It makes use of the technique to investigate how the share prices responded to the tragedy over a number of trading days, including the day of the shootings. To be best of our knowledge, no attempt has been made to analyse the impact on share prices using events of this nature. For the investigation, daily returns data was used for each firm. The abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns to each were then calculated and compared with their respective expected returns in order to determine whether investors in the shares of that particular firm reacted positively, negatively or not at all. The evidence found suggests that tragedies of this nature are capable of influencing share prices in the same manner as more traditional economic phenomena. Overall, only one firm was found to have been negatively affected by the shootings in a persistent manner, while the shares of the other firms examined reacted in a manner that was positive overall, but varied according to individual firm characteristics such as size. These finding conformed to our a priori expectations. In addition, the results also confirm the benefits of applying event study methodology to a wide variety of phenomena that fall outside the boundaries usually associated with business.

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All these results indicate that the hypothesis of weak-form market efficiency has limited applicability in the Hong Kong stock market and that recognised inefficiencies are strongly associated with the information of trend-chasing technical analysts. The results are also consistent with the findings of a theoretical model proposed in this dissertation. In particular, the model suggests that trend-chasing behaviour, together with uncertainty about intrinsic values, contributes to market inefficiency. / This dissertation studies the relationship between the use of trend-chasing technical analysis and inefficiency in the Hong Kong stock market. To answer how widespread use of technical analysis can influence stock prices, a simple equilibrium model is developed. It is shown that trend-chasing behaviour, together with uncertainty about intrinsic values, leads to market inefficiencies in the form of overshooting, positive autocorrelation of short-horizon returns, mean reversion and excess volatility. / To empirically test whether market inefficiency is associated with the information of trend-chasing technical analysts, this dissertation focuses on the Hong Kong stock market, in which technical analysis is widely used. The data covers daily closing values of the Hang Seng Index (HSI) in Hong Kong from 1969 to 1992. The results show that the buy and sell signals obtained from MA rules, which are commonly used indicators of technical analysis in the market, are strongly associated with abnormal price behaviour. For instance, when changes in these MA signals are observed, short-run abnormal price behaviour is noted. That is, stock prices tend to rise when the MA rules change to buy signals and tend to fall when they change to sell signals. Also, autocorrelation in daily returns appears to differ for periods following buy and sell signals. Daily returns tend to be more autocorrelated when the MA rules provide buy signals and less autocorrelated when they provide sell signals. Moreover, when most MA rules show buy signals, mean reversion is more pronounced in subsequent dates. Furthermore, fund managers in Hong Kong can benefit from using the buy and sell signals because they consistently provide information allowing for superior market timing. / by Wong Chak-sham Michael. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-09, Section: A, page: 3579. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-145). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / School code: 1307.

Wong, Kin Lung Keith. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-131). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Thesis/Assessment Committee --- p.iii / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Background Studies --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Ultra-high Frequency Data Handling with Database Server --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Use of Database Server --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- Ultra-high Frequency Data Treatments --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Cleaning of Data --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Matching of a Trade and Its Standing Quote --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3 --- Tick-by-tick Price Modeling --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Multivariate Linear Models --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Duration and Volume Handling --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- VAR Model Selection Techniques --- p.20 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- Seasonality Handling --- p.24 / Chapter 3 --- Problem Definition and Framework --- p.27 / Chapter 3.1 --- Engle and Patton's Model --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2 --- Preparation of data --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3 --- Methods to Estimate Diurnal Adjustment Param- eters --- p.38 / Chapter 3.4 --- Transformation of the Model to Fit in VARX soft- wares --- p.40 / Chapter 3.5 --- Modification of the Model --- p.47 / Chapter 3.6 --- Estimating and Forecasting the Exogenous Vari- ables --- p.52 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- Modelling BUYt and SELLt --- p.52 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- Modelling DURt and VOLt --- p.53 / Chapter 3.6.3 --- Modelling k(t) --- p.56 / Chapter 3.6.4 --- Forecasting the Cross Terms and the Sum of Buys and Sells --- p.62 / Chapter 3.7 --- Forecasting with the Main Model --- p.64 / Chapter 4 --- Experimental Evaluation --- p.67 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.73 / Chapter A --- Source and Data Information --- p.76 / Chapter B --- Model Estimation Results for (3.13) --- p.80 / Chapter C --- Model Forecasting Results for (3.13) and (3.2) --- p.102 / Bibliography --- p.127

Li, Nasha. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 28-30). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iii / Tables and Figures --- p.v / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.2 / Chapter 3. --- Factor-Augmented Regression Framework --- p.6 / Chapter 3.1 --- Estimation of latent factors --- p.8 / Chapter 3.2 --- Number of factors --- p.9 / Chapter 3.3 --- Interpretation of the factors --- p.11 / Chapter 4. --- Data --- p.12 / Chapter 5. --- Empirical Results --- p.13 / Chapter 5.1 --- Common factors --- p.13 / Chapter 5.2 --- Descriptive analysis --- p.16 / Chapter 5.3 --- Macroeconomic factors and excess returns predictability --- p.18 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- In-sample specifications --- p.18 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Out-of-sample prediction performance --- p.24 / Chapter 6. --- Conclusion --- p.26 / Reference --- p.28 / Appendixes --- p.31 / Appendix I: Tables and Figures --- p.31 / Appendix II: Data --- p.52 / Appendix III: Calculation of the Fama-French three factors --- p.59

This study examines the effect of the introduction of CSI300 Index Futures on the volatility of the stock market. Taking into account of the existence of the long term trend of diminishing volatility of the Chinese stock market, the difference-in-difference method was used instead of the simple before-and-after method to investigate how the volatility of the constituent stocks changes relative to the non-constituent stocks after the introduction of CSI300 Index Futures. Empirical results revealed that the volatility of the constituent stocks increased as compared with that of non-constituent stocks before and after the inception of the CSI300 Index Futures. The temporal-self comparison for the stocks entered or removed from the CSI300 Index List showed that that the introduction of index futures has a long-term destabilizing effect. / 本文研究滬深300股票指數期貨的推出對我國股票市場波動率的影響。考慮到中國股市長期波動率下降的趨勢的存在,我們用差上差的方法取代了傳統的簡單事前事後比較方法來研究成分股相對于非成分股波動率在滬深300股票指數期貨推出前後是如何變化的。實證結果顯示成分股股票相對于非成分股股票,波動率在滬深300股票指數期貨推出前後實際上是上升的。對於進入或者剔除出滬深300指數名單的股票的實證研究顯示,這種股票不同狀態的自我比較說明對於滬深300股票指數期貨的推出在長期有失穩作用。 / Luo, Shengjie. / Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 12, October, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

published_or_final_version / Statistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The price earnings multiple is a ratio of valuation and is published widely in the media as a comparative instrument of investment decisions. It is used to compare company valuation levels and their future growth/franchise opportunities. There have been numerous research studies done on the price earnings multiple, but no study has been able to design or derive a model to successfully predict the future price earnings multiple where the current stock price and following year-end earnings per share is used. The most widely accepted method of share valuation is to discount the future cash flows by an appropriate discount rate. Popular and widely used stock valuation models are the Dividend Discount Model and the Gordon Model. Both these models assume that future dividends are cash flows to the shareholder. Thomas K. Philips, the chief investment officer at Paradigm Asset Management in New York, constructed a valuation model at the end of 1999, which he published in The Journal of Portfolio Management. The model (Philips price earnings multiple model) was derived from the Dividend Discount Model and calculates an implied future price earnings multiple. The Philips price earnings multiple model includes the following independent variables: the cost of equity, the return on equity and the dividend payout ratio. Each variable in the Philips price earnings multiple model is a calculated present year-end point value, which was used to calculate the implied future price earnings multiple (present year stock price divided by following year-end earnings per share). This study used a historical five year (1995-2000) year-end data to calculate the implied and actual future price earnings multiple. Out of 225, Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies studied, only 36 were able to meet the criteria of the Philips price earnings multiple model. Correlation and population mean tests were conducted on the implied and constructed data sets. It proved that the Philips price earnings multiple model was unsuccesful in predicting the future price earnings multiple, at a statistical 0,20 level of significance. The Philips price earnings multiple model is substantially more complex than the Discount Dividend Model and includes greater restrictions and more assumptions. The Philips price earnings multiple model is a theoretical instrument which can be used to analyse hypothetical (with all model assumptions and restrictions having been met) companies. The Philips price earnings multiple model thus has little to no applicability in the practical valuation of stock price on Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die prysverdienste verhouding is 'n waarde bepalingsverhouding en word geredelik gepubliseer in die media. Hierdie verhouding is 'n maatstaf om maatskappye se waarde vlakke te vergelyk en om toekomstige groei geleenthede te evalueer. Daar was al verskeie navorsingstudies gewy aan die prysverdiensteverhouding, maar nog geen model is ontwikkel wat die toekomstige prysverdiensteverhouding (die teenswoordige aandeelprys en toekomstige jaareind verdienste per aandeel) suksesvol kon modelleer nie. Die mees aanvaarbare metode vir waardebepaling van aandele is om toekomstige kontantvloeie te verdiskonteer teen 'n toepaslike verdiskonteringskoers. Van die vernaamste en mees gebruikte waardeberamings modelle is die Dividend Groei Model en die Gordon Model. Beide modelle gebruik die toekomstige dividendstroom as die toekomstige kontantvloeie wat uitbetaal word aan die aandeelhouers. Thomas K. Philips, die hoof beleggingsbeampte by Paradigm Asset Management in New York, het 'n waardeberamingsmodel ontwerp in 1999. Die model (Philips prysverdienste verhoudingsmodei) was afgelei vanaf die Dividend Groei Model en word gebruik om 'n geïmpliseerde toekomstige prysverdiensteverhouding te bereken. Die Philips prysverdienste verhoudingsmodel sluit die volgende onafhanklike veranderlikes in: die koste van kapitaal, die opbrengs op aandeelhouding en die uitbetalingsverhouding. Elke veranderlike in hierdie model is 'n berekende teenswoordige jaareinde puntwaarde, wat gebruik was om die toekomstige geïmpliseerde prysverdiensteverhouding (teenswoordige jaar aandeelprys gedeel deur die toekomstige verdienste per aandeel) te bereken. In hierdie studie word vyf jaar historiese jaareind besonderhede gebruik om die geïmpliseerde en werklike toekomstige prysverdiensteverhouding te bereken. Van die 225 Johannesburg Effektebeurs genoteerde maatskappye, is slegs 36 gebruik wat aan die vereistes voldoen om die Philips prysverdienste verhoudingsmodel te toets. Korrelasie en populasie gemiddelde statistiese toetse is op die berekende en geïmpliseerde data stelle uitgevoer en gevind dat die Philips prysverdienste verhoudingsmodel, teen 'n statistiese 0,20 vlak van beduidenheid, onsuksesvol was om die toekomstige prysverdiensteverhouding vooruit te skat. Die Philips prysverdienste verhoudingsmodel is meer kompleks as die Dividend Groei Model met meer aannames en beperkings. Die Philips prysverdienste verhoudingsmodel is 'n teoretiese instrument wat gebruik kan word om hipotetiese (alle model aannames en voorwaardes is nagekom) maatskappye te ontleed. Dus het die Philips prysverdienste verhoudingsmodel min tot geen praktiese toepassingsvermoë in die werkilke waardasie van aandele nie.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research report investigated whether evidence of volatility clustering exists on the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index. The presence of volatility clustering has practical implications relating to market decisions as well as the accurate measurement and reliable forecasting of volatility. This research report was conducted as an in-depth analysis of volatility, measured over five different return interval sizes covering the sample in non-overlapping periods. Each of the return interval sizes' volatility were analysed to reveal the distributional characteristics and if it violated the normality assumption. The volatility was also analysed to identify in which way, if any, subsequent periods are correlated. For each of the interval sizes one-step-ahead volatility forecasting was conducted using Linear Regression, Exponential Smoothing, GARCH(1,1) and EGARCH(1,1) models. The results were analysed using appropriate criteria to determine which of the forecasting models were more powerful. The forecasting models range from very simple to very complex, the rationale for this was to determine if more complex models outperform simpler models. The analysis showed that there was sufficient evidence to conclude that there was volatility clustering on the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index. It further showed that more complex models such as the GARCH(1,1) and EGARCH(1,1) only marginally outperformed less complex models, and does not offer any real benefit over simpler models such as Linear Regression. This can be ascribed to the mean reversion effect of volatility and gives further insight into the volatility structure over the sample period. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsingsverslag ondersoek die FTSE/JSE Top 40 Indeks om te bepaal of daar genoegsame bewyse is dat volatiliteitsbondeling teenwoordig is. Die teenwoordigheid van volatiliteitsbondeling het praktiese implikasies vir besluite in finansiele markte en akkurate en betroubare volatiliteitsvooruitskattings. Die verslag doen 'n diepgaande ontleding van volatiliteit, gemeet oor vyf verskillende opbrengs interval groottes wat die die steekproef dek in nie-oorvleuelende periodes. Elk van die opbrengs interval groottes se volatiliteitsverdelings word ontleed om te bepaal of dit verskil van die normaalverdeling. Die volatiliteit van die intervalle word ook ondersoek om te bepaal tot watter mate, indien enige, opeenvolgende waarnemings gekorreleer is. Vir elk van die interval groottes word 'n een-stap-vooruit vooruitskatting gedoen van volatiliteit. Dit word gedoen deur middel van Lineêre Regressie, Eksponensiële Gladstryking, GARCH(1,1) en die EGARCH(1,1) modelle. Die resultate word ontleed deur middel van erkende kriteria om te bepaal watter model die beste vooruitskattings lewer. Die modelle strek van baie eenvoudig tot baie kompleks, die rasionaal is om te bepaal of meer komplekse modelle beter resultate lewer as eenvoudiger modelle. Die ontleding toon dat daar genoegsame bewyse is om tot die gevolgtrekking te kom dat daar volatiliteitsbondeling is op die FTSE/JSE Top 40 Indeks. Dit toon verder dat meer komplekse vooruitskattingsmodelle soos die GARCH(1,1) en die EGARCH(1,1) slegs marginaal beter presteer het as die eenvoudiger vooruitskattingsmodelle en nie enige werklike voordeel soos Lineêre Regressie bied nie. Dit kan toegeskryf word aan die neiging van volatiliteit am terug te keer tot die gemiddelde, wat verdere insig lewer oor volatiliteit gedurende die steekproef.