SPECIAL: Commodities
Commodity pricing
A new paper combines two key aspects of commodity pricing: a rational pricing model based on the present value of future convenience yields...
The latent factors behind commodity price indices
A 35-year empirical study suggests that about one third of the monthly changes in a broad commodity price index can be attributed to a...
Volatility risk premia in the commodity space
Volatility risk premia – differences between options-implied and actual volatility – are valid predictors for risky asset returns. High premia typically indicate high surcharges...
SYSTEMIC RISK
How systemic financial risk is measured
Public institutions have developed a wide range of methods to track systemic financial risk. What...
How convenience yields have compressed real interest rates
Real interest rates on ‘safe’ assets such as high-quality government bonds had been stationary around...
How regulatory reform shapes the financial cycle
Ambitious regulatory reform has changed the dynamics of the global financial system. Capital ratios of...
Predicting equity volatility with return dispersion
Equity return dispersion is measured as the standard deviation of returns across different stocks or...
Low rates troubles for insurances and pension funds
A CGFS report highlights the pressure of a ‘low for long’ interest rate environment on...
SYSTEMATIC VALUE
Variance term premia
Variance term premia are surcharges on traded volatility that compensate for bearing volatility risk in...
Multiple risk-free interest rates
Financial markets produce more than one risk-free interest rate. This is because there are several...
How lazy trading explains FX market puzzles
Not all market participants respond to changing conditions instantaneously, not even in the FX market....
A brief history of quantitative equity strategies
Understanding quantitative equity investments means understanding a significant portion of market positions. Motivated by the...
Predicting equity volatility with return dispersion
Equity return dispersion is measured as the standard deviation of returns across different stocks or...
POPULAR POSTS
The four components of long-term bond yields
A BOJ paper proposes an affine terms structure model for bond yields under consideration of the zero lower bound. It estimates the contribution of...
Leverage in asset management
Asset managers can use leverage to enhance returns. Outside hedge funds, such leverage is modest as share of assets under management. However, considering the huge...
Understanding market beta in FX
The beta of an investment measures its sensitivity to “market returns”. Unlike in equity, in FX the relevant benchmark for a beta cannot be a...
Basic theory of momentum strategies
Systematic momentum trading is a major alternative risk premium strategy across asset classes. Time series momentum motivates trend following; cross section momentum gives rise...
Lessons from long-term global equity performance
A truly global and long-term (116 years) data set for both successful and failed financial markets shows that equity has delivered positive long-term performance...
Why the covered interest parity is breaking down
Deviations in the covered interest parity have become a regular phenomenon even in developed markets. Persistent gaps between on-shore and FX-implied interest rate differentials (“cross-currency...