How to calculate the 2-day Historical Volatility of SPX

Discussion in 'Options' started by Derrenoption, May 19, 2017.

  1. Hello!

    I wonder how to calculate the 2-day Historical Volatility of SPX:
    I found this formula below but are not sure how to accurate calculate the below. So I thought to ask to be sure. Anyone know how to calculate the below? :

    The 2-day HV is calculated as:
    STDEV [ LN (todaysclose / yesterdaysclose) : LN (yesterdaysclose / daybeforeyesterdaysclose)] * SQRT (251)

    todaysclose: 100
    yesterdaysclose: 99
    daybeforeyesterdaysclose: 98
     
  2. I am not able to do use STDEV in excel but I have tried to calculate this manually and I think the result should be:

    =STDEV(LN(100/99):LN(99/98)) * SQRT(251)
    = 0.00114307211478042

    Is this the correct answer in excel?

    Thanks
     
  3. tommcginnis

    tommcginnis

    Youtube is your friend.
    You want std. dev (as you've stated), not std. error (a sampling tool).
    but to compute over a 2-observation "population" is way-bad small.
    you would do much better to remember that the period you wish to look back has an infinite number of possible measurement ranges in it. Thus, rather than
    2-days = 2-days
    think about
    2-days = 6.5+6.5 trading hours, or
    = 26+26 trading quarter-hours, or
    = 78+78 trading 5-minute candles......

    Lastly, if you work in an ATR graph, your life will be better........
     
    mushinseeker likes this.
  4. Jeff Augen has a book called "daytrading options" which has good examples on volatilities and diff methods of trading them as well.
     
  5. I could see a STDDEV calculation on youtube so I beleive this should be correct:
    =STDEV(LN(100/99):LN(99/98)) * SQRT(251)
    = 0.00114307211478042

    Yes 2 days might be not to much but I will play around and see how it could differ with other periods.
    Thanks!