Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices

Despite their importance in pricing futures and other derivative contracts, seasonalvariations in mean and variance of energy prices have not been fully captured inprevious studies of energy prices. We examine the volatility dynamics of daily naturalgas futures traded on the NYMEX via the partially...

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Main Authors: Suenaga, Hiroaki, Smith, A., Williams, J.
Other Authors: Professor Harry Bloch, President, The Economic Society of Australia (WA branch)
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Curtin University of Technology 2006
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14008
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author Suenaga, Hiroaki
Smith, A.
Williams, J.
author2 Professor Harry Bloch, President, The Economic Society of Australia (WA branch)
author_facet Professor Harry Bloch, President, The Economic Society of Australia (WA branch)
Suenaga, Hiroaki
Smith, A.
Williams, J.
author_sort Suenaga, Hiroaki
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Despite their importance in pricing futures and other derivative contracts, seasonalvariations in mean and variance of energy prices have not been fully captured inprevious studies of energy prices. We examine the volatility dynamics of daily naturalgas futures traded on the NYMEX via the partially overlapping time-series (POTS) modelof Smith (2005, Journal of Applied Econometrics). We illustrate that the volatility of dailyprice changes of natural gas exhibits strong seasonality, even as the volatility increases asa contract approaches its expiration, a time-to-maturity effect. Our analysis reveals thatthe persistence of price shocks and, hence, the correlations among concurrently tradedcontracts, also exhibit substantial seasonal and cross-sectional variation. These volatilitypatterns we estimate are closely related to the seasonal cycle of US natural gas storage ina way consistent with the theory of storage. We demonstrate that, by ignoring theseasonality in the volatility dynamics of natural gas futures prices, previous studies havesuggested sub-optimal hedging strategies.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-140082017-01-30T11:40:49Z Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices Suenaga, Hiroaki Smith, A. Williams, J. Professor Harry Bloch, President, The Economic Society of Australia (WA branch) Despite their importance in pricing futures and other derivative contracts, seasonalvariations in mean and variance of energy prices have not been fully captured inprevious studies of energy prices. We examine the volatility dynamics of daily naturalgas futures traded on the NYMEX via the partially overlapping time-series (POTS) modelof Smith (2005, Journal of Applied Econometrics). We illustrate that the volatility of dailyprice changes of natural gas exhibits strong seasonality, even as the volatility increases asa contract approaches its expiration, a time-to-maturity effect. Our analysis reveals thatthe persistence of price shocks and, hence, the correlations among concurrently tradedcontracts, also exhibit substantial seasonal and cross-sectional variation. These volatilitypatterns we estimate are closely related to the seasonal cycle of US natural gas storage ina way consistent with the theory of storage. We demonstrate that, by ignoring theseasonality in the volatility dynamics of natural gas futures prices, previous studies havesuggested sub-optimal hedging strategies. 2006 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14008 Curtin University of Technology fulltext
spellingShingle Suenaga, Hiroaki
Smith, A.
Williams, J.
Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices
title Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices
title_full Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices
title_fullStr Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices
title_full_unstemmed Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices
title_short Volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices
title_sort volatility dynamics of nymex natural gas futures prices
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14008