
Does stock market volatility change over time?
Even though the set of stocks contained in the “market” portfolio changes over time, the behavior of volatility is not affected. There are few stocks in the sample in 1857, and they are all railroad stocks. Nevertheless, they represent most of the actively traded equity securities at that time.
Was volatility “too high” during the Great Depression?
Schwert (1989b) and Turner, Startz, and Nelson (1989) use Hamilton's model to represent stock return volatility. It is not possible, however, to determine whether volatility was “too high” during the Depression without some model of the possible outcomes that did not occur.
How does leverage affect stock market volatility?
Effects of Leverage on Stock Market Volatility One explanation of time-varying stock volatility is that leverage changes as relative stock and bond prices change.
Is macroeconomic volatility related to interest rates or dividends?
Mascaro and Meltzer (1983) and Lauterbach (1989) find that macroeconomic volatility is related to interest rates. Shiller (1981a, b) argues that the level of stock market volatility is too high relative to the ex post variability of dividends.

Why does stock market volatility change over time?
Stock market volatility increases with financial leverage, as predicted by Black and Christie, although this factor explains only a small part of the variation in stock volatility. In addition, interest rate and corporate bond return volatility are correlated with stock return volatility.
What is causing volatility in the stock market?
What Causes Market Volatility? Stock market volatility is largely caused by uncertainty, which can be influenced by interest rates tax changes, inflation rates, and other monetary policies but it is also affected by industry changes and national and global events.
What causes volatility to increase?
Often, market volatility is caused by economic factors, economic news, interest rate changes, and fiscal policy are a few topics that seem to consistently affect the volatility of the market. More recently, a leading factor has been political developments.
Why did VIX increase?
The VIX rises as a result of increased demand for puts but also swells because the put options' demand increase will cause the implied volatility to rise. Like any time of scarcity for any product, the price will move higher because demand drastically outpaces supply.
What factors affect volatility?
Factors Affecting Volatility Changes in inflation trends, plus industry and sector factors, can also influence the long-term stock market trends and volatility. For example, a major weather event in a key oil-producing area can trigger increased oil prices, which in turn spikes the price of oil-related stocks.
Why is the stock market volatile 2022?
The stock market is getting jittery in 2022, as investors try to figure out where the economy and corporate earnings will go amid higher interest rates, record inflation, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and China's Covid lockdowns.
Is a high volatility good?
The speed or degree of the price change (in either direction) is called volatility. As volatility increases, the potential to make more money quickly, also increases. The tradeoff is that higher volatility also means higher risk.
What causes market fluctuations?
There are four major factors that cause both long-term trends and short-term fluctuations. These factors are government, international transactions, speculation and expectation, and supply and demand.
How do you predict stock volatility?
Using equity return data, we find that daily realized power (involving 5-minute absolute returns) is the best predictor of future volatility (measured by increments in quadratic variation) and outperforms model based on realized volatility (i.e. past increments in quadratic variation).
What moves the VIX?
Volatility value, investors' fear, and VIX values all move up when the market is falling. The reverse is true when the market advances—the index values, fear, and volatility decline. The price action of the S&P 500 and the VIX often shows inverse price action: when the S&P falls sharply, the VIX rises—and vice versa.
How does VIX affect stock market?
The VIX is also known as the Fear Index because a higher level of VIX normally reflects higher level of fear prevailing in the market. That is the reason market crashes are preceded by a sharp spike in the VIX or immediately followed by a sharp spike in the VIX.
G. William Schwert
This paper analyzes the relation of stock volatility with real and nominal macroeconomic volatility, financial leverage, stock trading activity, default risk, and firm profitability using monthly data from 1857-1986.
Abstract
This paper analyzes the relation of stock volatility with real and nominal macroeconomic volatility, financial leverage, stock trading activity, default risk, and firm profitability using monthly data from 1857-1986.
