The impact of option hedging on the spot market volatility

Benjamin Anderegg, Florian Ulmann and Didier Sornette

Journal of International Money and Finance, 2022, vol. 124, issue C

Abstract: We theoretically model and empirically quantify the feedback effect of delta hedging for the spot market volatility of the forex market. We start from an economy with two types of traders, an aggregated option market maker (OMM) and an aggregated option market taker (OMT), whose exposures reflect the total outstanding positions of all option traders in the market. A different hedge ratio of the OMM and OMT leads to a net delta hedge activity, which introduces market friction. We represent this friction by a simple linear permanent impact model. This approach allows us to derive the dependence of the spot market volatility on the gamma exposure of the traders. Our theoretical model shows that the spot market volatility is increased (decreased) by a negative (positive) gamma exposure of the OMM, whereby the amount of the increase depends on the net delta hedge amount executed in the spot market. To empirically test this model, we first reconstruct the aggregated OMM’s gamma exposure by using trade repository data and find that it is negative. The empirical analysis performed over the period from 21st October 2017 to 30th June 2018 using our reconstructed OMM data then strongly supports our theoretical model: The gamma exposure of the OMM turns out to be highly significant for the spot market volatility and, as expected, the spot market volatility is increased with the OMM’s short gamma exposure. Quantitatively, a negative gamma exposure of the OMM of approximately −1000 billion USD (which is around what we observe from our reconstructed OMM data) leads to an absolute increase in volatility of 0.7% in EURUSD and 0.9% in USDJPY.

Keywords: DTCC; FX options; Delta hedging; Price impact; Trade repository data; Volatility modeling; frictions; feedback effects; instability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C32 C51 C55 C58 C80 G12 G15 G21 G23 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:124:y:2022:i:c:s0261560622000304

DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2022.102627

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