Topic overview

q-fin.PR

Map preview

Topic at a glance

204works

368authors indexed

preprint2016arXiv

On a method of solving the Black-Scholes Equation

The paper proposes a different method of solving a simplified version of the Black-Scholes equation. This paper will discuss the importance of the Black-Scholes equation and its applications in finance.

preprint2016arXiv

Stock loans with liquidation

We derive a "semi-analytic" solution for a stock loan in which the lender forces liquidation when the loan-to-collateral ratio drops beneath a certain threshold. We use this to study the sensitivity of the contract to model parameters.

preprint2016arXiv

Short Maturity Asian Options in Local Volatility Models

We present a rigorous study of the short maturity asymptotics for Asian options with continuous-time averaging, under the assumption that the underlying asset follows a local volatility model. The asymptotics for out-of-the-money, in-the-money, and at-the-money cases are derived, considering both fixed strike and floating strike Asian options. The asymptotics for the out-of-the-money case involves a non-trivial variational problem which is solved completely. We present an analytical approximation for Asian options prices, and demonstrate good numerical agreement of the asymptotic results with the results of Monte Carlo simulations and benchmark test cases in the Black-Scholes model for option parameters relevant in practical applications.

preprint2016arXiv

A Market Driver Volatility Model via Policy Improvement Algorithm

In the over-the-counter market in derivatives, we sometimes see large numbers of traders taking the same position and risk. When there is this kind of concentration in the market, the position impacts the pricings of all other derivatives and changes the behaviour of the underlying volatility in a nonlinear way. We model this effect using Heston's stochastic volatility model modified to take into account the impact. The impact can be incorporated into the model using a special product called a market driver, potentially with a large face value, affecting the underlying volatility itself. We derive a revised version of Heston's partial differential equation which is to be satisfied by arbitrary derivatives products in the market. This enables us to obtain valuations that reflect the actual market and helps traders identify the risks and hold appropriate assets to correctly hedge against the impact of the market driver.

preprint2016arXiv

Generalization of Doob Decomposition Theorem and Risk Assessment in Incomplete Markets

In the paper, we introduce the notion of a local regular supermartingale relative to a convex set of equivalent measures and prove for it the necessary and sufficient conditions of optional Doob decomposition in the discrete case. This Theorem is a generalization of the famous Doob decomposition onto the case of supermartingales relative to a convex set of equivalent measures. The description of all local regular supermartingales relative to a convex set of equivalent measures is presented. A notion of complete set of equivalent measures is introduced. We prove that every non negative bounded supermartingale relative to a complete set of equivalent measures is local regular. A new definition of fair price of contingent claim in incomplete market is given and a formula for fair price of Standard option of European type is found.

preprint2016arXiv

Regularization and analytic option pricing under $α$ -stable distribution of arbitrary asymmetry

We consider a non-Gaussian option pricing model, into which the underlying log-price is assumed to be driven by an $α$ -stable distribution. We remove the a priori divergence of the model by introducing a Mellin regularization for the Lévy propagator. Using distributional and $\mathbb{C}^n$ tools, we derive an analytic closed formula for the option price, valid for any stability $α\in]1,2]$ and any asymmetry. This formula is very efficient and recovers previous cases (Black-Scholes, Carr-Wu); we calibrate the formula on market datas, make numerical tests, and discuss its many interesting properties.

preprint2013arXiv

Convergence of the discrete variance swap in time-homogeneous diffusion models

In stochastic volatility models based on time-homogeneous diffusions, we provide a simple necessary and sufficient condition for the discretely sampled fair strike of a variance swap to converge to the continuously sampled fair strike. It extends Theorem 3.8 of Jarrow, Kchia, Larsson and Protter (2013) and gives an affirmative answer to a problem posed in this paper in the case of 3/2 stochastic volatility model. We also give precise conditions (not based on asymptotics) when the discrete fair strike of the variance swap is higher than the continuous one and discuss the convex order conjecture proposed by Keller-Ressel and Griessler (2012) in this context.

preprint2016arXiv

Distributional Mellin calculus in $\mathbb{C}^n$ , with applications to option pricing

We discuss several aspects of Mellin transform, including distributional Mellin transform and inversion of multiple Mellin-Barnes integrals in $\mathbb{C}^n$ and its connection to residue expansion or evaluation of Laplace integrals. These mathematical concepts are demonstrated on several option-pricing models. This includes European option models such as Black-Scholes or fractional-diffusion models, as well as evaluation of quantities related to the optimal exercise price of American options.

preprint2013arXiv

Forward Exponential Performances: Pricing and Optimal Risk Sharing

In a Markovian stochastic volatility model, we consider financial agents whose investment criteria are modelled by forward exponential performance processes. The problem of contingent claim indifference valuation is first addressed and a number of properties are proved and discussed. Special attention is given to the comparison between the forward exponential and the backward exponential utility indifference valuation. In addition, we construct the problem of optimal risk sharing in this forward setting and solve it when the agents' forward performance criteria are exponential.

preprint2011arXiv

Asymptotic Expansions of the Lognormal Implied Volatility : A Model Free Approach

We invert the Black-Scholes formula. We consider the cases low strike, large strike, short maturity and large maturity. We give explicitly the first 5 terms of the expansions. A method to compute all the terms by induction is also given. At the money, we have a closed form formula for implied lognormal volatility in terms of a power series in call price.

preprint2016arXiv

LSV models with stochastic interest rates and correlated jumps

Pricing and hedging exotic options using local stochastic volatility models drew a serious attention within the last decade, and nowadays became almost a standard approach to this problem. In this paper we show how this framework could be extended by adding to the model stochastic interest rates and correlated jumps in all three components. We also propose a new fully implicit modification of the popular Hundsdorfer and Verwer and Modified Craig-Sneyd finite-difference schemes which provides second order approximation in space and time, is unconditionally stable and preserves positivity of the solution, while still has a linear complexity in the number of grid nodes.

preprint2014arXiv

Numerical analysis for Spread option pricing model in illiquid underlying asset market: full feedback model

This paper performs the numerical analysis and the computation of a Spread option in a market with imperfect liquidity. The number of shares traded in the stock market has a direct impact on the stock's price. Thus, we consider a full-feedback model in which price impact is fully incorporated into the model. The price of a Spread option is characterize by a nonlinear partial differential equation. This is reduced to linear equations by asymptotic expansions. The Peaceman-Rachford scheme as an alternating direction implicit method is employed to solve the linear equations numerically. We discuss the stability and the convergence of the numerical scheme. Illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the presented method. Finally we provide a numerical analysis of the illiquidity effect in replicating an European Spread option; compared to the Black-Scholes case, a trader generally buys more stock to replicate this option.

preprint2016arXiv

Mass at zero in the uncorrelated SABR model and implied volatility asymptotics

We study the mass at the origin in the uncorrelated SABR stochastic volatility model, and derive several tractable expressions, in particular when time becomes small or large. As an application--in fact the original motivation for this paper--we derive small-strike expansions for the implied volatility when the maturity becomes short or large. These formulae, by definition arbitrage free, allow us to quantify the impact of the mass at zero on existing implied volatility approximations, and in particular how correct/erroneous these approximations become.

preprint2016arXiv

Robust Trading of Implied Skew

In this paper, we present a method for constructing a (static) portfolio of co-maturing European options whose price sign is determined by the skewness level of the associated implied volatility. This property holds regardless of the validity of a specific model - i.e. the method is robust. The strategy is given explicitly and depends only on beliefs about the future values of implied skewness, which is an observable market indicator. As such, our method allows to use the existing statistical tools to formulate the beliefs, providing a practical interpretation of the more abstract mathematical setting, in which the belies are understood as a family of probability measures. One of the applications of our results is a method for trading views on the future changes in implied skew, largely independently of other market factors. Another application provides a concrete improvement of the existing model-independent super- and sub- replication strategies for barrier options, which exploits a given set of beliefs on the implied skew. Our theoretical results are tested empirically, using the historical prices of SP500 options.

preprint2016arXiv

Loading Pricing of Catastrophe Bonds and Other Long-Dated, Insurance-Type Contracts

Catastrophe risk is a major threat faced by individuals, companies, and entire economies. Catastrophe (CAT) bonds have emerged as a method to offset this risk and a corresponding literature has developed that attempts to provide a market-consistent pricing methodology for these and other long-dated, insurance-type contracts. This paper aims to unify and generalize several of the widely-used pricing approaches for long-dated contracts with a focus on stylized CAT bonds and market-consistent valuation. It proposes a loading pricing concept that combines the theoretically possible minimal price of a contract with its formally obtained risk neutral price, without creating economically meaningful arbitrage. A loading degree controls how much influence the formally obtained risk neutral price has on the market price. A key finding is that this loading degree has to be constant for a minimally fluctuating contract, and is an important, measurable characteristic for prices of long-dated contracts. Loading pricing allows long-dated, insurance-type contracts to be priced less expensively and with higher return on investment than under classical pricing approaches. Loading pricing enables ins

preprint2016arXiv

A remark on Gatheral's 'most-likely path approximation' of implied volatility

We give a new proof of the representation of implied volatility as a time-average of weighted expectations of local or stochastic volatility. With this proof we clarify the question of existence of 'forward implied variance' in the original derivation of Gatheral, who introduced this representation in his book 'The Volatility Surface'.

preprint2016arXiv

No-arbitrage bounds for the forward smile given marginals

We explore the robust replication of forward-start straddles given quoted (Call and Put options) market data. One approach to this problem classically follows semi-infinite linear programming arguments, and we propose a discretisation scheme to reduce its dimensionality and hence its complexity. Alternatively, one can consider the dual problem, consisting in finding optimal martingale measures under which the upper and the lower bounds are attained. Semi-analytical solutions to this dual problem were proposed by Hobson and Klimmek (2013) and by Hobson and Neuberger (2008). We recast this dual approach as a finite dimensional linear programme, and reconcile numerically, in the Black-Scholes and in the Heston model, the two approaches.

preprint2016arXiv

Exponential functionals of Levy processes and variable annuity guaranteed benefits

Exponential functionals of Brownian motion have been extensively studied in financial and insurance mathematics due to their broad applications, for example, in the pricing of Asian options. The Black-Scholes model is appealing because of mathematical tractability, yet empirical evidence shows that geometric Brownian motion does not adequately capture features of market equity returns. One popular alternative for modeling equity returns consists in replacing the geometric Brownian motion by an exponential of a Levy process. In this paper we use this latter model to study variable annuity guaranteed benefits and to compute explicitly the distribution of certain exponential functionals.

preprint2016arXiv

XVA at the Exercise Boundary

XVA is a material component of a trade valuation and hence it must impact the decision to exercise options within a given netting set. This is true for both unsecured trades and secured / cleared trades where KVA and MVA play a material role even if CVA and FVA do not. However, this effect has frequently been ignored in XVA models and indeed in exercise decisions made by option owners. This paper describes how XVA impacts the exercise decision and how this can be readily evaluated using regression techniques (Longstaff and Schwartz 2001). The paper then assesses the materiality of the impact of XVA at the exercise boundary on swaption examples.

preprint2016arXiv

Convergence of Estimated Option Price in a Regime switching Market

In an observed generalized semi-Markov regime, estimation of transition rate of regime switching leads towards calculation of locally risk minimizing option price. Despite the uniform convergence of estimated step function of transition rate, to meet the existence of classical solution of the modified price equation, the estimator is approximated in the class of smooth functions and furthermore, the convergence is established. Later, the existence of the solution of the modified price equation is verified and the point-wise convergence of such approximation of option price is proved to answer the tractability of its application in Finance. To demonstrate the consistency in result a numerical experiment has been reported.

preprint2016arXiv

A system of non-local parabolic PDE and application to option pricing

This paper includes a proof of well-posedness of an initial-boundary value problem involving a system of degenerate non-local parabolic PDE which naturally arises in the study of derivative pricing in a generalized market model. In a semi-Markov modulated GBM model the locally risk minimizing price function satisfies a special case of this problem. We study the well-posedness of the problem via a Volterra integral equation of second kind. A probabilistic approach, in particular the method of conditioning on stopping times is used for showing uniqueness.

preprint2016arXiv

Discrete Sums of Geometric Brownian Motions, Annuities and Asian Options

The discrete sum of geometric Brownian motions plays an important role in modeling stochastic annuities in insurance. It also plays a pivotal role in the pricing of Asian options in mathematical finance. In this paper, we study the probability distributions of the infinite sum of geometric Brownian motions, the sum of geometric Brownian motions with geometric stopping time, and the finite sum of the geometric Brownian motions. These results are extended to the discrete sum of the exponential Lévy process. We derive tail asymptotics and compute numerically the asymptotic distribution function. We compare the results against the known results for the continuous time integral of the geometric Brownian motion up to an exponentially distributed time. The results are illustrated with numerical examples for life annuities with discrete payments, and Asian options.

preprint2016arXiv

Static vs adapted optimal execution strategies in two benchmark trading models

We consider the optimal solutions to the trade execution problem in the two different classes of i) fully adapted or adaptive and ii) deterministic or static strategies, comparing them. We do this in two different benchmark models. The first model is a discrete time framework with an information flow process, dealing with both permanent and temporary impact, minimizing the expected cost of the trade. The second model is a continuous time framework where the objective function is the sum of the expected cost and a value at risk (or expected shortfall) type risk criterion. Optimal adapted solutions are known in both frameworks from the original works of Bertsimas and Lo (1998) and Gatheral and Schied (2011). In this paper we derive the optimal static strategies for both benchmark models and we study quantitatively the improvement in optimality when moving from static strategies to fully adapted ones. We conclude that, in the benchmark models we study, the difference is not relevant, except for extreme unrealistic cases for the model or impact parameters. This indirectly confirms that in the similar framework of Almgren and Chriss (2000) one is fine deriving a static optimal solution,

preprint2014arXiv

Asset Pricing in an Imperfect World

In a model with no given probability measure, we consider asset pricing in the presence of frictions and other imperfections and characterize the property of coherent pricing, a notion related to (but much weaker than) the no arbitrage property. We show that prices are coherent if and only if the set of pricing measures is non empty, i.e. if pricing by expectation is possible. We then obtain a decomposition of coherent prices highlighting the role of bubbles. Eventually we show that under very weak conditions the coherent pricing of options allows for a very clear representation which allows, as in Breeden and Litzenberger, to extract the implied probability.

Inspect nearby papers, researchers, institutions and communities without opening a separate graph page.