Intermediate Volatility Forecasts Using Implied Forward Volatility: The Performance of Selected Agricultural Commodity Options

Options with different maturities can be used to generate an implied forward volatility, a volatility forecast for non-overlapping future time intervals. Using five commodities with varying characteristics, we find that the implied forward volatility dominates forecasts based on historical volatility information, but that the predictive accuracy is affected by the commodity's characteristics. Unbiased and efficient corn and soybeans market forecasts are attributable to the well-established volatility during crucial growing periods. For soybean meal, wheat, and hogs, volatility is less predictable and investors appear to demand a risk premium for bearing volatility risk.agricultural commodity, efficiency, forecasts, implied forward volatility, options, Marketing,

Intermediate Volatility Forecasts Using Implied Forward Volatility: The Performance of Selected Agricultural Commodity Options

Options with different maturities can be used to generate an implied forward volatility, a volatility forecast for non-overlapping future time intervals. Using five commodities with varying characteristics, we find that the implied forward volatility dominates forecasts based on historical volatility information, but that the predictive accuracy is affected by the commodity's characteristics. Unbiased and efficient corn and soybeans market forecasts are attributable to the well-established volatility during crucial growing periods. For soybean meal, wheat, and hogs volatility is less predictable, and investors appear to demand a risk premium for bearing volatility risk.Marketing,

OPTIONS-BASED FORECASTS OF FUTURES PRICES IN THE PRESENCE OF LIMIT MOVES

This analysis examines a simultaneous estimation option-based approach to forecast futures prices in the presence of daily price limit moves. The procedure explicitly allows for changing implied volatilities by estimating the implied futures price and the implied volatility simultaneously. Using 15 years of futures and futures options data for three agricultural commodities, we find that the simultaneous estimation approach accounts for the abrupt changes in implied volatility associated with limit moves and generates more accurate price forecasts than conventional methods that rely on only one implied variable.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

THE TERM STRUCTURE OF IMPLIED FORWARD VOLATILITY: RECOVERY AND INFORMATIONAL CONTENT IN THE CORN OPTIONS MARKET

Options with different maturities can be used to generate volatility estimates for non-overlapping future time intervals. This paper develops the term structure of volatility implied by corn futures options, and evaluates the informational content of the implied forward volatility as a predictor of subsequent realized volatility. Using data from 1987-2001 and employing a flexible method to obtain the implied forward volatilities, two types of information are examined: 1) the market's estimate of future realized volatility for the nearby interval of the term structure and, 2) the market's expectation of the direction and magnitude of change of future realized volatility over time. In contrast to previous research, the results indicate that the implied forward volatilities anticipate the realized volatilities provide unbiased forecasts and capture a larger portion of the systematic variability in the realized volatilities than forecasts based on historical volatilities. Using information on the direction and magnitude of change in volatility over time, we find that the early-year options forecast volatility about as well as the three-year moving average and better than the naive forecast, while later-year options and alternative forecasts are less able to predict the direction and magnitude of changing volatility. During this later-year period, the implied forward volatilities tend to over-predict the magnitude of actual volatility. Overall, we find that the term structure of volatility implied by corn futures options contains information on future realized volatility.corn options, implied forward volatility, informational content, term structure, Marketing,

Portfolio Diversification with Commodity Futures: Properties of Levered Futures

This study extends previous work on the impact of commodity futures on portfolio performance by explicitly incorporating levered futures into the portfolio optimization problem. Using data on nine individual commodity futures and one aggregate index from 1994-2003, we find that collateralized and levered futures strategies perform similarly in an ex-post context. Significant differences between the approaches emerge however when constraints on investment behavior exist. Further, levered futures do not result in a prohibitive number of margin calls. The investment performances of the collateralized and the levered strategies vary little across different rebalancing intervals, and frequent portfolio rebalancing does not necessarily result in superior performance.Marketing,

AN EVALUATION OF CROP FORECAST ACCURACY FOR CORN AND SOYBEANS: USDA AND PRIVATE INFORMATION SERVICES

Using 1971-2000 data, we examine the accuracy of corn and soybean production forecasts provided by the USDA and two private services. All agencies improved their forecasts as the harvest progressed, and forecast errors across the agencies were highly correlated. Relative accuracy varied by crop and month. In corn, USDA 's forecasts ranked as most accurate in all periods except in August during recent times, and improved more markedly as harvest progressed. In soybeans, forecast errors were very similar with the private agencies ranking as most accurate in August and September and making largest relative improvements in August during recent times. The USDA provided the most accurate October and November forecasts.Crop Production/Industries,

Research in Agricultural Futures Markets: Integrating the Finance and Marketing Approach

In a brief literature review, we discuss how our insight into the grounds of existence of futures markets has changed from the initial insurance perspective, to the arbitrage perspective, to the portfolio perspective, and to the current institutional perspective. We discuss futures market research within agricultural marketing, on the one hand, and within finance, on the other hand. The research within these two disciplines may be considered complementary. Subsequently, a new research model is presented which integrates both strains of research. The new research model is illustrated for the Dutch hog industry. This model is a powerful instrument in the development of new commodity futures contracts. Finally, a future research agenda for agricultural economists is presented

Biofuel Economics in a Setting of Multiple Objectives & Unintended Consequences

This paper examines biofuels from an economic perspective and evaluates the merits of promoting biofuel production in the context of the policies’ multiple objectives, life-cycle implications, pecuniary externalities, and other unintended consequences. The policy goals most often cited are to reduce fossil fuel use and to lower greenhouse gas emissions. But the presence of multiple objectives and various indirect effects complicates normative evaluation. To address some of these complicating factors, we look at a several combinations of policy alternatives that achieve the same set of incremental gains along the two primary targeted policy dimensions, making it possible to compare the costs and cost-effectiveness of each combination of policies. For example, when this approach is applied to U.S.-produced biofuels, they are found to be 14 to 31 times as costly as alternatives like raising the gas tax or promoting energy efficiency improvements. The analysis also finds the scale of the potential contributions of biofuels to be extremely small in both the U.S. and EU. Mandated U.S. corn ethanol production for 2025 reduces U.S. petroleum input use by 1.75%, and would have negligible net effects on CO2 emissions; and although EU imports of Brazilian ethanol may look better given the high costs of other alternatives, this option is equivalent, at most, to a 1.20% reduction in EU gasoline consumption.This is the author's peer-reviewed final manuscript as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by Elsevier and can be found here: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-and-sustainable-energy-reviews/Keywords: biofuel, ethanol, cost-effectiveness, biodiesel, net energy, indirect land use change effects, GHG, multiple objectivesKeywords: biofuel, ethanol, cost-effectiveness, biodiesel, net energy, indirect land use change effects, GHG, multiple objective

Biofuel potential in Oregon : background and evaluation of options

Published June 2007. Reviewed January 2015. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Intermediate Volatility Forecasts Using Implied Forward Volatility: The Performance of Selected Agricultural Commodity Options

Options with different maturities can be used to generate an implied forward volatility, a volatility forecast for non-overlapping future time intervals. Using five commodities with varying characteristics, we find that the implied forward volatility dominates forecasts based on historical volatility information, but that the predictive accuracy is affected by the commodity's characteristics. Unbiased and efficient corn and soybeans market forecasts are attributable to the well-established volatility during crucial growing periods. For soybean meal, wheat, and hogs volatility is less predictable, and investors appear to demand a risk premium for bearing volatility risk