Autocallable contingent income securities (autocalls) have payouts contingent on
the performance of an underlying asset and give investors an opportunity to earn
high yields in a low-interest environment. The authors collected data on
US-issued autocalls and modeled a typical autocall under various assumptions,
finding that they are issued on underlying assets that display high volatility,
high prices, and negative skewness. Incorporating stochastic volatility into the
model explains some of the overpricing routinely reported in prior studies.