VIX futures are exchange-traded contracts on a future volatility index (VIX) level derived from a basket of S&P 500 (SPX) stock index options. The authors posit a stochastic variance model of VIX time evolution, and develop an expression for VIX futures. Free parameters are estimated from market data over the past few years. It is found that the model with parameters estimated from the whole period from 1990 to 2005 overprices the futures contracts by 16-44%. But the discrepancy is dramatically reduced to 2-12% if the parameters are estimated from the most recent one-year period. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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