Weekly Volatility Tracker: Overpaying for Options

The spread between the volatility realized in the S&P 500 over the last 30 calendar days and the volatility implied in S&P 500 options 30 calendar days ago is about the widest that it has been this year, with the exception of a similar instance in early August [see charts 5,6]. That means stocks haven’t been nearly as volatile as index option prices have assumed they would be.

Put another way, it has paid to be a net seller of options over the period. Whether this persistent “overbid” in implied volatility will continue depends entirely on the risk appetites of traders and on the ability of the market to stay calm and gleeful – an increase in days like Wednesday and Thursday of last week would make options prices more nearly fairly valued.

The implied volatility in oil options continues to look fairly priced [16,17], although traders with a neutral-to-bullish intermediate price outlook should consider capturing the vertical skew in near-term put options. Gold implied volatility (GVZ) has fallen near its 52-week low [see charts 3,12], and we can expect it to reach that low if traders continue to reject the $1000 price level.

1. Comment. Highlights items of note in the data below along with our short-term volatility bias and any trading theses. The Expected Daily Move table displays the de-annualized price and percentage change in each underlying asset as implied by its volatility index, within one standard deviation. The Forward Bias table displays my bias for the movement of the price and implied volatility of several assets for the coming week.
2. Weekly Change. Tracks the weekly percentage change in the assets listed and in their implied volatility indexes.
3. Implied Volatility Indexes. A one year chart of the implied volatility indexes for the S&P 500, gold, oil, and USD/EUR. Indexes for the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 are omitted because of their tight correlation with VIX.
4. S&P 500 Price and Bollinger Bands. Tracks daily closing prices in SPXwith an overlay of one and two standard deviation 50-day bands.
5. S&P 500 Implied and Realized Volatility. Tracks the 21-, 60-, and 90-day realized (or “historical”) volatility of the index and the21-day lagged CBOE Implied Volatility Index ("VIX"). Realized volatility is displayed as the annualized standard deviation of lognormal returns over the period specified, and may be thought of as a backward-looking measurement of price behavior. Implied volatility is the annualized standard deviation of returns implied by option prices, and may be thought of as a forward-looking measurement of expected price behavior.
6. S&P 500 Implied/Realized Volatility Ratio. Tracks the ratio of 21-day lagged implied volatility (IV) to 21-day realized volatility (RV). This ratio asks how well IV from one month ago predicted the RV over the next 21 trading days (roughly, 30 calendar days). When IV correctly anticipates RV over the period, the ratio will hover near 1; we regard the area near 0.9 –1.2 as normal, given the persistence of a volatility risk premium in equity market derivatives. A ratio less (greater) than 1 indicates that the price behavior of the underlying asset was more (less) volatile than anticipated.
7. Volatility Futures Term Structure. Tracks the Friday closing prices of the Volatility Futures complex (VIX, VXD, RVX) for the two weeks prior, along with the spot levels for reference.
8. VIX Premium Ratio. Tracks the ratio of rolling three-month (VXV) to one-month (VIX) implied volatility. Periods in which one-month readings persist at an extreme premium or discount to three-month levels have tended to coincide with major market moves.
9. S&P 500 Daily Return Distribution (3 month). Histogram plotting the frequency of daily percentage returns over the prior 63 trading days.
10. Implied Correlation Index. Reflects the market-capitalization weighted average correlation of the 50 largest components of the S&P 500.
11. Gold Price and Bollinger Bands. Tracks daily closing prices in GLDwith an overlay of one and two standard deviation 50-day bands.
12. Gold Implied and Realized Volatility. Tracks the 21-, 60-, and 90-day realized (or “historical”) volatility of the ETF and the 21-day lagged CBOE Gold Volatility Index ("GVZ").
13. Gold Implied/Realized Volatility Ratio. See #6 above; given the novelty of the VIX-style gold volatility index (GVZ) and the characteristics of the underlying, we do not yet have a range we regard as normal.
14. Gold Daily Return Distribution (3 month). See #9 above.
15. 15-18. Oil charts correspond to 11-14 above.

Disclosure: No positions