A Note on Forecasting the Historical Realized Variance of Oil-Price Movements: The Role of Gold-to-Silver and Gold-to-Platinum Price Ratios

We examine the predictive value of gold-to-silver and gold-to-platinum price ratios, as proxies for global risks affecting the realized variance (RV) of oil-price movements, using monthly data over the longest available periods of 1915:01–2021:03 and 1968:01–2021:03, respectively. Using the two ratios, we find statistically significant evidence of in-sample predictability for increases in RV for both ratios. This finding also translates into statistically significant out-of-sample forecasting gains derived from these two ratios for RV. Given the importance of real-time forecasts of the volatility of oil-price movements, our results have important implications for investors and policymakers.

Forecasting the Volatility of Crude Oil: The Role of Uncertainty and Spillovers

We use a dataset for the group of G7 countries and China to study the out-of-sample predictive value of uncertainty and its international spillovers for the realized variance of crude oil (West Texas Intermediate and Brent) over the sample period from 1996Q1 to 2020Q4. Using the Lasso estimator, we found evidence that uncertainty and international spillovers had predictive value for the realized variance at intermediate (two quarters) and long (one year) forecasting horizons in several of the forecasting models that we studied. This result holds also for upside (good) and downside (bad) variance, and irrespective of whether we used a recursive or a rolling estimation window. Our results have important implications for investors and policymakers.

Forecasting Power of Infectious Diseases-Related Uncertainty for Gold Realized Variance

We examine the forecasting power of a daily newspaper-based index of uncertainty associated with infectious diseases (EMVID) for gold market returns volatility via the heterogeneous autoregressive realized variance (HAR-RV) model. Our results show that the EMVID index increases realized variance (RV) at the highest level of statistical significance within-sample, while it improves the forecast accuracy of gold realized variance at short-, medium-, and long-run horizons in a statistically significant manner. Importantly, by assessing the role of this index during the recent pandemic, we find strong evidence for its critical role in forecasting gold RV. Such evidence has important portfolio implications for investors during the current period of unprecedented levels of uncertainty resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19.

Infectious diseases, market uncertainty and oil market volatility

We examine the predictive power of a daily newspaper-based index of uncertainty associated with infectious diseases (EMVID) for oil-market volatility. Using the heterogeneous autoregressive realized volatility (HAR-RV) model, we document a positive effect of the EMVID index on the realized volatility of crude oil prices at the highest level of statistical significance, within-sample. Importantly, we show that incorporating EMVID into a forecasting setting significantly improves the forecast accuracy of oil realized volatility at short-, medium-, and long-run horizons. Our findings comprise important implications for investors and risk managers during the unprecedented episode of high uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.