Raphael-Nicholas Markellos

Is There an Olympic Gold Medal Rush in the Stock Market

Investor sentiment and attention are often linked to the same non-economic events making it difficult to understand why and how asset prices are affected. We disentangle these two potential drivers of investment behaviour by analysing a new data-set of medals for the major participating countries and sponsor firms over four Summer Olympic Games. Our results show that trading volume and volatility are substantially reduced following Olympic success although returns appear to be largely unaffected. Analysis of data from online search volumes and surveys measuring investor sentiment also suggests that the market impact of the Olympics is linked to changes in attention.

Estimation of Continuous-Time Stochastic Volatility Models

This chapter reviews some of the key issues involved in estimating continuous-time stochastic volatility models. Such models have become popular recently because they provide a rich variety of alternative specifications which often lead to closed or semi-closed solutions in a variety of asset-pricing applications. An empirical comparison of various stochastic volatility models is also undertaken, along with a discussion of some directions for future research.