What Does Risk-Neutral Skewness Tell Us About Future Stock Returns?

This study documents a positive relationship between the option‐implied risk‐neutral skewness (RNS) of individual stock returns’ distribution and future realized stock returns during the period 1996–2012. A strategy that goes long the quintile portfolio with the highest RNS stocks and short the quintile portfolio with the lowest RNS stocks yields a Fama–French–Carhart alpha of 55 basis points per month (t‐statistic of 2.47). The significant underperformance of the portfolio with the most negative RNS stocks is driven by those stocks that are also perceived as relatively overpriced according to a series of overvaluation proxies and are too costly or too risky to sell short, thereby hindering the price correction mechanism. Our findings indicate that a highly negative RNS value, when reflecting high hedging demand for options by investors who perceive the underlying stock as relatively overpriced but hard to sell short, is a robust signal of significant future stock underperformance. This paper was accepted by Jerome Detemple, finance.