Volatility persistence and inventory effect in grain futures markets: evidence from a recursive model

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the volatility persistence and the inventory effect in grain futures markets during the period of 1959-2014. The innovative nature of this study lies in the evaluation of rolling estimates, using a recursive univariate TARCH(1,1)-in-mean volatility model. The daily evolution of volatility persistence and the inventory effect on corn and soybean futures contracts is analyzed using a rolling window of 1008 observations over four years. In general, the results suggest that the conditional volatility in both markets is highly persistent. There is also evidence of inventory, time-to-maturity, and seasonality effects on the volatility dynamics of corn and soybeans. In addition, the findings point to a lower short-run volatility persistence in recent years, which caused a slight decrease in long-run volatility persistence and the half-life period in both markets.