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The Hazards of Volatility Diversification

Author

Listed:
  • Carol Alexander

    (ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading)

  • Dimitris Korovilas

    (ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading)

Abstract

Recent research advocates volatility diversification for long equity investors. It can even be justified when short-term expected returns are highly negative, but only when its equilibrium return is ignored. Its advantages during stock market crises are clear but we show that the high transactions costs and negative carry and roll yield on volatility futures during normal periods would outweigh any benefits gained unless volatility trades are carefully timed. Our analysis highlights the difficulty of predicting when volatility diversification is optimal. Hence insitutional investors should be sceptical of studies that extol its benefits. Volatility is better left to experienced traders such as speculators, vega hedgers and hedge funds.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol Alexander & Dimitris Korovilas, 2011. "The Hazards of Volatility Diversification," ICMA Centre Discussion Papers in Finance icma-dp2011-04, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    • Handle: RePEc:rdg:icmadp:icma-dp2011-04
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    File URL: http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/files/discussion-papers/DP2011-04.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gurdip Bakshi & Nikunj Kapadia, 2003. "Delta-Hedged Gains and the Negative Market Volatility Risk Premium," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 527-566.
    2. Daskalaki, Charoula & Skiadopoulos, George, 2011. "Should investors include commodities in their portfolios after all? New evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2606-2626, October.
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    4. Best, Michael J & Grauer, Robert R, 1991. "On the Sensitivity of Mean-Variance-Efficient Portfolios to Changes in Asset Means: Some Analytical and Computational Results," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 315-342.
    5. Bessembinder, Hendrik & Chan, Kalok, 1992. "Time-varying risk premia and forecastable returns in futures markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 169-193, October.
    6. T. Randall Fortenbery & Robert J. Hauser, 1990. "Investment Potential of Agricultural Futures Contracts," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 72(3), pages 721-726.
    7. Peter Carr & Liuren Wu, 2009. "Variance Risk Premiums," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1311-1341, March.
    8. Reinhold Hafner & Martin Wallmeier, 2008. "Optimal investments in volatility," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 22(2), pages 147-167, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer & Robert Powell & Abhay K. Singh, 2013. "A Non-Parametric and Entropy Based Analysis of the Relationship between the VIX and S&P 500," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-25, October.
    2. Martin Wallmeier, 2011. "Beyond payoff diagrams: how to present risk and return characteristics of structured products," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 25(3), pages 313-338, September.
    3. Paweł Sakowski & Daria Turovtseva, 2020. "Does Bitcoin Improve Investment Portfolio Efficiency?," Working Papers 2020-42, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    4. Latoszek Michał & Ślepaczuk Robert, 2020. "Does the inclusion of exposure to volatility into diversified portfolio improve the investment results? Portfolio construction from the perspective of a Polish investor," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 6(1), pages 46-81, March.
    5. Kozarski, R., 2013. "Pricing and hedging in the VIX derivative market," Other publications TiSEM 221fefe0-241e-4914-b6bd-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Juliusz Jablecki & Robert Slepaczuk & Ryszard Kokoszczynski & Pawel Sakowski & Piotr Wojcik, 2014. "Does historical VIX term structure contain valuable information for predicting VIX futures?," Dynamic Econometric Models, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 14, pages 5-28.
    7. Juliusz Jabłecki & Ryszard Kokoszczyński & Paweł Sakowski & Robert Ślepaczuk & Piotr Wójcik, 2014. "Does historical volatility term structure contain valuable in-formation for predicting volatility index futures?," Working Papers 2014-18, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Black-Litterman Model; Institutional Investors; Mean-Variance Criterion; Optimal Asset Allocation; S&P 500; SPY ETF; VIX Futures;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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