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On the Tail Risk Premium in the Oil Market

Author

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  • Reinhard Ellwanger

Abstract

This paper shows that changes in market participants’ fear of rare events implied by crude oil options contribute to oil price volatility and oil return predictability. Using 25 years of historical data, we document economically large tail risk premia that vary substantially over time and significantly forecast crude oil futures and spot returns. Oil futures prices increase (decrease) in the presence of upside (downside) fears in order to allow for smaller (larger) returns thereafter. This increase (decrease) is amplified for the spot price because of time varying-benefits from holding physical oil inventories that work in the same direction. We also provide support for view that that time variation in the relative importance of oil demand and supply shocks is an important determinant of oil price fluctuations and their interaction with aggregate outcomes. However, the option-implied tail risk premia are not spanned by traditional macroeconomic and oil market uncertainty measures, suggesting that time-varying oil price fears are an additional source of oil price volatility and predictability.

Suggested Citation

  • Reinhard Ellwanger, 2017. "On the Tail Risk Premium in the Oil Market," Staff Working Papers 17-46, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:17-46
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    11. Jessica A. Wachter, 2013. "Can Time-Varying Risk of Rare Disasters Explain Aggregate Stock Market Volatility?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 987-1035, June.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Wong, Patrick, 2023. "Explaining intraday crude oil returns with higher order risk-neutral moments," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    2. Remzi Uctum & Georges Prat, 2021. "Modeling ex-ante risk premia in the oil market," Post-Print hal-03513121, HAL.
    3. Salisu, Afees A. & Pierdzioch, Christian & Gupta, Rangan, 2022. "Oil tail risks and the forecastability of the realized variance of oil-price: Evidence from over 150 years of data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    4. Salisu, Afees A. & Gupta, Rangan & Ji, Qiang, 2022. "Forecasting oil prices over 150 years: The role of tail risks," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Salisu, Afees A. & Pierdzioch, Christian & Gupta, Rangan, 2021. "Geopolitical risk and forecastability of tail risk in the oil market: Evidence from over a century of monthly data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    6. Salisu, Afees A. & Gupta, Rangan & Pierdzioch, Christian, 2022. "Predictability of tail risks of Canada and the U.S. Over a Century: The role of spillovers and oil tail Risks☆," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Syed Abul, Basher, 2019. "Oil and other energy commodities," MPRA Paper 97318, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Afees A. Salisu & Rangan Gupta & Christian Pierdzioch, 2021. "Predictability of Tail Risks of Canada and the U.S. Over a Century: The Role of Spillovers and Oil Tail Risks," Working Papers 202127, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    9. Li, Zhenxiong & Yao, Xingzhi & Izzeldin, Marwan, 2023. "On the right jump tail inferred from the VIX market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asset Pricing; Econometric and statistical methods; Financial markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

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