Implied volatility and higher risk neutral moments: predictive ability

Implied volatility obtained from market option prices is widely regarded as an efficient predictor of future realised volatility. Implied volatility can be thought of as market's expectation of future realised volatility. We distinguish between volatility-changing events with respect to expectations - scheduled events (such as information releases) and unscheduled events. We propose a method of testing the information content of option-implied risk-neutral moments prior to volatility-changing events. Using the method introduced by Bakshi, Kapadia & Madan (2003) we extract implied volatility, skewness and kurtosis from S&P 500 options market prices and apply the proposed method in four case studies. Two are concerned with scheduled events - United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016 and United States presidential election, 2016, two are concerned with unscheduled events - flash crash of August 24, 2015 and flash crash of October 15, 2014. Implied volatility indicates a rise in future realised volatility prior to both scheduled events. We find a significant rise in implied kurtosis during the last three days prior to the presidential election of 2016. Prior to unscheduled events, we find no evidence of implied moments indicating a rise in future realised volatility