Seasonal Stochastic Volatility: Implications for the Pricing of Commodity Options
53 Pages Posted: 5 Jul 2011 Last revised: 22 Mar 2019
Date Written: February 1, 2016
Abstract
Many commodity markets contain a strong seasonal component not only at the price level, but also in volatility. In this paper, the importance of seasonal behavior in the volatility for the pricing of commodity options is analyzed. We propose a seasonally varying long-run mean variance process that is capable of capturing empirically observed patterns. Semi-closed form option valuation formulas are derived. We then empirically study the impact of the proposed seasonal stochastic volatility model on the pricing accuracy of natural gas futures options traded at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and corn futures options traded at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Our results demonstrate that allowing stochastic volatility to fluctuate seasonally significantly reduces pricing errors for these contracts.
Keywords: commodities, seasonality, stochastic volatility, options pricing, natural gas, corn
JEL Classification: G13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation