Quote inefficiency in options markets Articles uri icon

publication date

  • June 2015

start page

  • 23

end page

  • 36

issue

  • 6

volume

  • 55

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0378-4266

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1872-6372

abstract

  • In an arbitrage-free economy with non-zero bid-ask spreads the existence of payoffs whose price is lower than the price of a dominated payoff cannot be discarded in general. However, when the former price corresponds to trivial portfolios which involve buying or selling one unit of the basis assets, its presence, although not an arbitrage, is a severe market anomaly which we refer to as an inefficient quote. In an empirical study, we report evidence that indicates that in options markets both the frequency and the magnitude of these anomalies are substantial and we document puzzling patterns in their behavior. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

keywords

  • inefficient quotes; bid-ask spread; law of one price; index options