Download or read book Volatility-of-Volatility and the Cross-Section of Option Returns written by Xinfeng Ruan and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents a robust new finding that there is a significantly negative relation between the equity option returns and the forward-looking volatility-of-volatility (VOV). After controlling for numerous existing option and stock characteristics, the VOV effect remains significantly negative. It also survives many robustness checks. A conceptual model provided in this paper reveals the pricing mechanism behind the VOV effect, i.e., the negative relation is due to the negative market price of the VOV risk. As investors dislike the VOV risk, they are willing to pay a high premium to hold options on high VOV stocks. The high-low return spread on option portfolios sorted on VOV cannot be explained by standard risk factors, and survives the double sorting on a variety of control variables. This confirms that the VOV effect is economically and statistically significant.