SmileSlope · Optionrisk · Yan (2011)

Put volatility minus call volatility

Long minus short decile portfolio, value-weighted, market-adjusted. Quarterly, 1996Q2 to 2022Q4.

Expected return · posterior mean, % per year, averaged over the window
Next quarter
2026Q4
14.65%
95% interval 9.83% to 19.13%
Next year
2026Q4–2027Q3
14.39%
95% interval 9.44% to 19.00%
Next five years
2026Q4–2031Q3
13.24%
95% interval 7.77% to 18.32%

Forecast made 16 Sep 2026, conditioning on this portfolio's OAP returns, which end 2022Q4. The 15 quarters between then and 2026Q4 are unobserved and are integrated out under the model.

Cumulative market-adjusted return

+11,238% since 1996Q2 · log scale

Past performance, annualized

Window Mean Vol. Sharpe t
1996Q2–2022Q4 18.91% 13.40% 1.41 7.30
2018Q1–2022Q4 17.55% 11.70% 1.50 3.35
2022Q1–2022Q4 37.68% 5.29% 7.12 7.12

Forecast Sharpe ratio, annualized

Window Mean 95% interval P(neg)
2026Q4 1.11 0.74 – 1.45 <0.01
2026Q4–2027Q3 0.97 0.63 – 1.27 <0.01
2026Q4–2031Q3 0.64 0.36 – 1.04 <0.01
Category
Optionrisk
Form
Continuous
Data
Options
Sorted on
Low minus high
Names per leg
242 long / 242 short median · 197 at the 10th pctile
Original sample
1996–2005