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Arbitrage Opportunities in The Australian Share Price Index Futures Contract

Author

Listed:
  • John Bowers

    (Australian Graduate School of Management.)

  • Garry Twite

    (Australian Graduate School of Management.)

Abstract

This study examines the pricing behaviour of share price index futures contracts traded on the Australian market. Particularly, we investigate the relationship between futures prices and the no-arbitrage price predicted by the current spot prices. Consistent with similar studies of U.S. markets, we find that the observed share price index futures prices differ from those predicted by the no-arbitrage prices, but that the size and sign of this difference is not constant across the contracts or across the time period included in our sample. The explanations suggested in the literature for the existence of these price differences are predominantly institutional in nature. These include differential tax treatment, short selling constraints, thin trading and transaction costs. We find that these explanations do not appear to be capable of explaining the size or sign of the pricing differences we observe.

Suggested Citation

  • John Bowers & Garry Twite, 1985. "Arbitrage Opportunities in The Australian Share Price Index Futures Contract," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 10(2), pages 1-29, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:10:y:1985:i:2:p:1-29
    DOI: 10.1177/031289628501000201
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J & Rentzler, Joel, 1984. "Intra-Day Tests of the Efficiency of the Treasury Bill Futures Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(1), pages 129-137, February.
    2. Cornell, Bradford & Reinganum, Marc R, 1981. "Forward and Futures Prices: Evidence from the Foreign Exchange Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(5), pages 1035-1045, December.
    3. Cox, John C. & Ingersoll, Jonathan Jr. & Ross, Stephen A., 1981. "The relation between forward prices and futures prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 321-346, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Simon Loria & Toan Pham & Ah Boon Sim, 1991. "The Performance of a Stock Index Futures Based Portfolio Insurance Scheme: Australian Evidence," Working Paper Series 5, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.

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