Option listing and stock returns

Abstract

This article examines the effect of option introductions on the underlying stocks. In addition to the price increase and volatility decrease that take place when new options are listed, we obtain and explain the following new empirical results: (i) an increase in the value of the market around the listing dates of new options, (ii) an increase in the value of an industry index which excludes the optioned stocks, (iii) the dissipation of the price and volatility effects in recent periods and (iv) the existence of an announcement effect in one subperiod of our sample and its dissipation in recent periods.