Effective and Big Divisors on a Projective Symmetric Variety

We describe the effective and the big cones of a projective symmetric variety. Moreover, we give a necessary and sufficient combinatorial criterion for the bigness of a nef divisor on a projective symmetric variety. When the variety is toroidal and the divisor is $G$-stable, such criterion has an explicit geometric interpretation. Finally, we describe the spherical closure of a symmetric subgroup.