Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubbles

We inspect the price volatility before, during, and after financial asset bubbles in orderto uncover possible commonalities and check empirically whether volatility might be used as anindicator or an early warning signal of an unsustainable price increase and the associated crash. Someresearchers an...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Didier Sornette, Peter Cauwels, Georgi Smilyanov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIMS Press 2018-03-01
Series:Quantitative Finance and Economics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.aimspress.com/article/10.3934/QFE.2018.1.1/fulltext.html
_version_ 1819212126939512832
author Didier Sornette
Peter Cauwels
Georgi Smilyanov
author_facet Didier Sornette
Peter Cauwels
Georgi Smilyanov
author_sort Didier Sornette
collection DOAJ
description We inspect the price volatility before, during, and after financial asset bubbles in orderto uncover possible commonalities and check empirically whether volatility might be used as anindicator or an early warning signal of an unsustainable price increase and the associated crash. Someresearchers and finance practitioners believe that historical and/or implied volatility increase beforea crash, but we do not see this as a consistent behavior. We examine forty well-known bubbles and,using creative graphical representations to capture robustly the transient dynamics of the volatility, findthat the dynamics of the volatility would not have been a useful predictor of the subsequent crashes.In approximately two-third of the studied bubbles, the crash follows a period of lower volatility,reminiscent of the idiom of a “lull before the storm”. This paradoxical behavior, from the lensesof traditional asset pricing models, further questions the general relationship between risk and return.
first_indexed 2024-12-23T06:38:01Z
format Article
id doaj.art-f1bc52a234134d6191fe192f1eab93a5
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2573-0134
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-23T06:38:01Z
publishDate 2018-03-01
publisher AIMS Press
record_format Article
series Quantitative Finance and Economics
spelling doaj.art-f1bc52a234134d6191fe192f1eab93a52022-12-21T17:56:45ZengAIMS PressQuantitative Finance and Economics2573-01342018-03-0121110510.3934/QFE.2018.1.1Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubblesDidier SornettePeter CauwelsGeorgi SmilyanovWe inspect the price volatility before, during, and after financial asset bubbles in orderto uncover possible commonalities and check empirically whether volatility might be used as anindicator or an early warning signal of an unsustainable price increase and the associated crash. Someresearchers and finance practitioners believe that historical and/or implied volatility increase beforea crash, but we do not see this as a consistent behavior. We examine forty well-known bubbles and,using creative graphical representations to capture robustly the transient dynamics of the volatility, findthat the dynamics of the volatility would not have been a useful predictor of the subsequent crashes.In approximately two-third of the studied bubbles, the crash follows a period of lower volatility,reminiscent of the idiom of a “lull before the storm”. This paradoxical behavior, from the lensesof traditional asset pricing models, further questions the general relationship between risk and return.http://www.aimspress.com/article/10.3934/QFE.2018.1.1/fulltext.htmlbubble| boom| bust| crash| prediction| volatility| risk-return
spellingShingle Didier Sornette
Peter Cauwels
Georgi Smilyanov
Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubbles
Quantitative Finance and Economics
bubble| boom| bust| crash| prediction| volatility| risk-return
title Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubbles
title_full Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubbles
title_fullStr Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubbles
title_full_unstemmed Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubbles
title_short Can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles? lessons from 40 historical bubbles
title_sort can we use volatility to diagnose financial bubbles lessons from 40 historical bubbles
topic bubble| boom| bust| crash| prediction| volatility| risk-return
url http://www.aimspress.com/article/10.3934/QFE.2018.1.1/fulltext.html
work_keys_str_mv AT didiersornette canweusevolatilitytodiagnosefinancialbubbleslessonsfrom40historicalbubbles
AT petercauwels canweusevolatilitytodiagnosefinancialbubbleslessonsfrom40historicalbubbles
AT georgismilyanov canweusevolatilitytodiagnosefinancialbubbleslessonsfrom40historicalbubbles