Stock Index Futures Trading Impact on Spot Price Volatility. The CSI 300 studied with a TGARCH model

A TGARCH modeling is argued to be the optimal basis for investigating the impact of index futures trading on spot price variability. We discuss the CSI-300 index (China-Shanghai-Shenzhen-300-Stock Index) as a test case. The results prove that the introduction of CSI-300 index futures (CSI-300-IF) trading significantly reduces the volatility in the corresponding spot market. It is also found that there is a stationary equilibrium relationship between the CSI-300 spot and CSI-300-IF markets. A bidirectional Granger causality is also detected. “Finally”, it is deduced that spot prices are predicted with greater accuracy over a 3 or 4 lag day time span.