What Does Risk-Neutral Skewness Tell Us About Future Stock Returns?
Przemysław S. Stilger, Alexandros Kostakis, Ser-Huang Poon
Management Science · 2017 · Volume 63 · Issue 6
Abstract
This study documents a positive relationship between the option-implied risk-neutral skewness (RNS) of individual stock returns’ distribution and future realized stock returns during the period 1996–2012. A strategy that goes long the quintile portfolio with the highest RNS stocks and short the quintile portfolio with the lowest RNS stocks yields a Fama–French–Carhart alpha of 55 basis points per month ( t -statistic of 2.47). The significant underperformance of the portfolio with the most negative RNS stocks is driven by those stocks that are also perceived as relatively overpriced according to a series of overvaluation proxies and are too costly or too risky to sell short, thereby hindering the price correction mechanism. Our findings indicate that a highly negative RNS value, when reflecting high hedging demand for options by investors who perceive the underlying stock as relatively overpriced but hard to sell short, is a robust signal of significant future stock underperformance. This paper was accepted by Jerome Detemple, finance .
Keywords
option-implied information, risk-neutral skewness, hedging pressure, overvaluation, short-selling constraints
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