1
vote
0answers
59 views

How to measure if variance is greater at a certain time of day?

I'm not very fluent in the quant vernacular, so perhaps the nature of my question will be better illustrated as a hypothesis. One market has closed and another market elsewhere on Spaceship Earth is ...
2
votes
1answer
80 views

How to calculate two-time scale variance?

I am having trouble understanding how to calculate two-time scale variance as I do not have a strong mathematical background. Suppose I want to calculate the TSRV at 5 min intervals. Do I calculate ...
3
votes
1answer
95 views

Why are there different estimators for stock volatility? (realized variance, RAV, etc)

I am very confused about why different volatility estimators (RV, RAV, BPV, etc) exist. If the goal is to find the best estimator for stock volatility, and volatility is latent, how do I know which ...
2
votes
2answers
185 views

Should I use GARCH volatility or standard deviation in cross-sectional regression?

I want to do a cross-sectional study where the historical, medium-long run volatility of some return series (call it $R_t$) is included as a regressor. Which of the following two estimates of ...
8
votes
2answers
481 views

Why do low standard deviation stocks tend to have superior future returns?

I've recently stumbled on something that really surprised me. These papers (1, 2) find that past standard deviation of returns is inversely related to future returns. That is, portfolio of low ...
6
votes
1answer
375 views

Conditional or unconditional volatility?

I am reading a paper (reference below) that states "The conditional volatility for each underlying security (or for a market index) can be estimated using the standard deviation of the stock’s ...
1
vote
2answers
276 views

What is the instantaneous P&L of a Variance Swap?

What is the instantaneous P&L of a variance swap. Is it $(\sigma^{2}_{t}-\sigma^{2}_{implied})dt$?
8
votes
5answers
4k views

Why would an investor trade a variance swap over a volatility swap?

Why would an investor trade a variance swap over a volatility swap? Is it simply related to the leverage involved in a Var (i.e. sigma-squared) or is there something else to it?
16
votes
6answers
9k views

What's the difference between volatility and variance?

How do they differ in what they imply about an underlying's (or any variable's) movement?