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The Stochastic Seasonal Behaviour of Natural Gas Prices

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  • Andrés García Mirantes
  • Javier Población
  • Gregorio Serna

Abstract

Previous studies have explored the seasonal behaviour of commodity prices as a deterministic factor. This paper goes further by proposing a general (n+2m)†factor model for the stochastic behaviour of commodity prices, which nests the deterministic seasonal model by Sorensen (2002). We consider seasonality as a stochastic factor, with n non†seasonal and m seasonal factors. The non†seasonal factors are as defined in Schwartz (1997), Schwartz and Smith (2000) and Cortazar and Schwartz (2003). The seasonal factors are trigonometric components generated by stochastic processes. The model has been applied to the Henry Hub natural gas futures contracts listed by NYMEX. We find that models allowing for stochastic seasonality outperform standard models with deterministic seasonality. We obtain similar results with other energy commodities. Moreover, we find that stochastic seasonality implies that the volatility of futures returns follows a seasonal pattern. This result has important implications in terms of option pricing.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrés García Mirantes & Javier Población & Gregorio Serna, 2012. "The Stochastic Seasonal Behaviour of Natural Gas Prices," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 18(3), pages 410-443, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:eufman:v:18:y:2012:i:3:p:410-443
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-036X.2009.00533.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Berrisch & Florian Ziel, 2022. "Distributional modeling and forecasting of natural gas prices," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 1065-1086, September.
    2. Zi‐Yi Guo, 2020. "Stochastic multifactor models in risk management of energy futures," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(12), pages 1918-1934, December.
    3. Ewald, Christian-Oliver & Haugom, Erik & Lien, Gudbrand & Størdal, Ståle & Wu, Yuexiang, 2022. "Trading time seasonality in commodity futures: An opportunity for arbitrage in the natural gas and crude oil markets?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Moreno, Manuel & Novales, Alfonso & Platania, Federico, 2019. "Long-term swings and seasonality in energy markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(3), pages 1011-1023.
    5. Sheng-Hung Chen & Song-Zan Chiou-Wei & Zhen Zhu, 2022. "Stochastic seasonality in commodity prices: the case of US natural gas," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(5), pages 2263-2284, May.
    6. Javier Población & Gregorio Serna, 2018. "A common long-term trend for bulk shipping prices," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 20(3), pages 421-432, September.
    7. Andrés García-Mirantes & Beatriz Larraz & Javier Población, 2020. "A Proposal to Fix the Number of Factors on Modeling the Dynamics of Futures Contracts on Commodity Prices," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-13, June.
    8. Fernandes, Mário Correia & Dias, José Carlos & Nunes, João Pedro Vidal, 2021. "Modeling energy prices under energy transition: A novel stochastic-copula approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    9. Javier Población & Gregorio Serna, 2021. "Measuring bulk shipping prices risk," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 23(2), pages 291-309, June.
    10. In Choi, 2023. "Does climate change affect economic data?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(6), pages 2939-2956, June.

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