Correlated implied volatility with jump and cross section of stock returns

I derive the option-implied volatility allowing for nonzero correlation between price jump and diffusive risk to examine the information content of implied diffusive, jump risks and their implied covariance in the cross-sectional variation of future returns. This study documents a strong predictive power of realized volatility and correlated implied volatility spread (RV − IV_C) in the cross section of stock returns. The difference of realized volatility with the implied diffusive volatility (RV − σ_C), jump risk (RV − γ_C) and covariance (RV − ICov) can forecast future returns. These RV − σ_C and RV − γ_C anomalies are robustly persistent even after controlling for market, size, book-to-market value, momentum and liquidity factors.