The effect of market sentiment and information asymmetry on option pricing

Abstract

This work addresses the impact of imperfections, such as information asymmetry and market sentiment, on the performance of option pricing models. More precisely, this work compares the option pricing model of Black and Scholes and the same model in the presence of imperfections. This study is based on S&P 500 options that cover the period between 17/03/2000 and 14/06/2013. The achieved results show that, in general, in the presence of imperfections, the model is more effective than the Black and Scholes model. This research appears to be promising for the incorporation of imperfections into the assessment of options.

Keywords: Information asymmetry, Market imperfections, Market sentiment, Option pricing; Put-call parity