On the nature of (jump) skewness risk premia

Abstract

Market skewness risk is priced but the components of its premium are not fully understood. We propose new trading strategies decomposing the skewness risk premium into jump and leverage effect components, and we analyze the skewness risk premia in the market for S&P 500 index options. We find that the skewness premium is higher when markets are closed than during trading hours, consistently with uncertainty resolution patterns by non-US investors; that it increases after left-tail market events and that it is distinct from the variance premium. Moreover, during trading hours, the skewness premium is dominated by priced jump risk.