Stylized facts of intraday precious metals

This paper examines the stylized facts, correlation and interaction between volatility and returns at the 5-minute frequency for gold, silver, platinum and palladium from May 2000 to April 2015. We study the full sample period, as well as three subsamples to determine how high-frequency data of precious metals have developed over time. We find that over the full sample, the number of trades has increased substantially over time for each precious metal, while the bid-ask spread has narrowed over time, indicating an increase in liquidity and price efficiency. We also find strong evidence of periodicity in returns, volatility, volume and bid- ask spread. Returns and volume both experience strong intraday periodicity linked to the opening and closing of major markets around the world while the bid-ask spread is at its low- est when European markets are open. We also show a bilateral Granger causality between returns and volatility of each precious metal, which holds for the vast majority subsamples

Exchange controls and the transmission of equity market volatility: the case of the UK

The paper investigates the impact that the relaxation of UK exchange controls in October 1979, had on the transmission of equity market volatility from the UK to other major equity markets. It is suggested that the existence of exchange controls in the UK was an important source of market segmentation which disturbed the transmission of shocks from one country to another, even when shocks contained global information. It is found that when a spillover GARCH(1,1) model is estimated for the five years before and after the removal of exchange controls, volatility shocks spill over from the UK to other markets much more strongly after the removal of exchange controls. This appears to suggest that volatility as well as returns have become more closely related since the UK removed exchange controls.

The leverage effect in the UK stock market

This study seeks to explain the leverage effect in UK stock returns by reference to the return volatility, leverage and size characteristics of UK companies. A leverage effect is found that is stronger for smaller companies and has greater explanatory power over the returns of smaller companies. The properties of a theoretical model that predicts that companies with higher leverage ratios will experience greater leverage effects are explored. On examining leverage ratio data, it is found that there is a propensity for smaller companies to have higher leverage ratios. The transmission of volatility shocks between the companies is also examined and it is found that the volatility of larger firm returns is important in determining both the volatility and returns of smaller firms, but not the reverse. Moreover, it is found that where volatility spillovers are important, they improve out-of-sample volatility forecasts.

Diversification benefits in the smaller European stock markets

This paper examines the diversification benefits available to U.S. and Japanese investors over the period 1974-94 in seven of the smaller European stock markets (SESMs): Austria, Belgium, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. With reference to a simplified International CAPM that accommodates both contemporaneous and delayed information flows, we employ correlation, principal components, and cointegration analysis in studying monthly observations from national basket indices. The empirical evidence is conclusive in showing that the SESMs have behaved differently, at least since the October 1987 crash, with stronger contemporaneous interdependencies and integration between them and with the U.S. market. Cointegration analysis found no significant common trend shared between the SESMs and the U.S. and Japanese markets. We conclude that despite the increasing international integration there still exist opportunities for diversification investment in the smaller and less studied European stock markets