International Research Journal of Finance and Economics ISSN 1450-2887 Issue 176 November, 2019 http://www.internationalresearchjournaloffinanceandeconomics.com Tests of the Stochastic Volatility with Jumps Model Driven by Moment Swaps Ako Doffou Department of Finance, School of Business, Shantou University Shantou, Guangdong, China E-mail:
[email protected] Tel: + 86-754-86502882; Fax: +86-754-86503442 Abstract This paper tests the pricing accuracy and the hedging performance of the stochastic volatility with random jumps model in markets extended to contain swap contracts whose payoffs depend on the realized higher moments of the state variable. Using a two-step iterative approach, latent model variables are first filtered and then used to estimate the model parameters. The tests on European options and variance swaps written on the S&P 500 index show superior pricing accuracies in-sample and out-of-sample and jump risk is priced. Hedging strategies involving higher-order moment swaps perform better across all moneyness and maturity classes. Keywords: Stochastic volatility; Random jumps; Variance swaps; Higher-order moment swaps; Self-financing portfolio. JEL Classifications: C52, G12, G13, 1. Introduction Moment swaps are derivatives whose payoff depends on the realized higher moments of the underlying state variable. This payoff depends on the powers of the daily log-returns and allows moment swaps to provide protection against various types of supply and demand shocks in capital markets. Variance swaps are created in the case of squared log-returns. Variance swaps are today liquidly traded, driven by different types of state variables and offer protection against the volatility regime fluctuations. In addition to the variance, skewness, kurtosis and higher-order moments play important roles in the distribution of asset prices.