Option Market Maker Hedging and Stock Market Liquidity

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that option market maker hedging impacts the liquidity of underlying stocks. Options contracts have zero net supply, and option market makers engage in delta hedging to manage the risk of their net imbalances, unlike option end-users. Consequently, when option market makers hold a net short (long) position, their dynamic hedging demands liquidity from (or supplies liquidity to) the underlying stock, leading to market destabilization (or stabilization). Leveraging proprietary option exchange data that categorizes option trading by trader type, we document this effect and show that it is stronger for stocks where liquidity supply is expected to be limited.

Keywords: derivatives, liquidity

JEL Classification: G10, G12