Lecture 17: Options Markets (ECON 252)

Financial Markets (2011) (ECON 252)

After introducing the core terms and main ideas of options in the beginning of the lecture, Professor Shiller emphasizes two purposes of options, a theoretical and a behavioral purpose. Subsequently, he provides a graphical representation for the value of a call and a put option, and, in this context, addresses the put-call parity for European options. Within the framework of the Binomial Asset Pricing model, he derives the value of a call-option from the no-arbitrage-principle, and, as a continuous-time analogue to this formula, he presents the Black-Scholes Option Pricing formula. He contrasts implied volatility, as represented by the VIX index of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, which uses a different formula in the spirit of Black-Scholes, with the actual S&P Composite volatility from 1986 until 2010. Professor Shiller concludes the lecture with some thoughts about options on single-family homes that he launched with his colleagues of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 2006.