Esscher transforms and consumption-based models

The Esscher transform is an important tool in actuarial science. Since the pioneering work of Gerber and Shiu (1994), the use of the Esscher transform for option valuation has also been investigated extensively. However, the relationships between the asset pricing model based on the Esscher transform and some fundamental equilibrium-based asset pricing models, such as consumption-based models, have so far not been well-explored. In this paper, we attempt to bridge the gap between consumption-based models and asset pricing models based on Esscher-type transformations in a discrete-time setting. Based on certain assumptions for the distributions of asset returns, changes in aggregate consumptions and returns on the market portfolio, we construct pricing measures that are consistent with those arising from Esscher-type transformations. Explicit relationships between the market price of risk, and the risk preference parameters are derived for some particular cases.     

On option pricing under a completely random measure via a generalized Esscher transform

In this paper, we develop an option valuation model when the price dynamics of the underlying risky asset is governed by the exponential of a pure jump process specified by a shifted kernel-biased completely random measure. The class of kernel-biased completely random measures is a rich class of jump-type processes introduced in [James, L.F., 2005. Bayesian Poisson process partition calculus with an application to Bayesian Lévy moving averages. Ann. Statist. 33, 1771–1799; James, L.F., 2006. Poisson calculus for spatial neutral to the right processes. Ann. Statist. 34, 416–440] and it provides a great deal of flexibility to incorporate both finite and infinite jump activities. It includes a general class of processes, namely, the generalized Gamma process, which in its turn includes the stable process, the Gamma process and the inverse Gaussian process as particular cases. The kernel-biased representation is a nice representation form and can describe different types of finite and infinite jump activities by choosing different mixing kernel functions. We employ a dynamic version of the Esscher transform, which resembles an exponential change of measures or a disintegration formula based on the Laplace functional used by James, to determine an equivalent martingale measure in the incomplete market. Closed-form option pricing formulae are obtained in some parametric cases, which provide practitioners with a convenient way to evaluate option prices.     

A game theoretic approach to option valuation under Markovian regime-switching models

In this paper, we consider a game theoretic approach to option valuation under Markovian regime-switching models, namely, a Markovian regime-switching geometric Brownian motion (GBM) and a Markovian regime-switching jump-diffusion model. In particular, we consider a stochastic differential game with two players, namely, the representative agent and the market. The representative agent has a power utility function and the market is a “fictitious” player of the game. We also explore and strengthen the connection between an equivalent martingale measure for option valuation selected by an equilibrium state of the stochastic differential game and that arising from a regime switching version of the Esscher transform. When the stock price process is governed by a Markovian regime-switching GBM, the pricing measures chosen by the two approaches coincide. When the stock price process is governed by a Markovian regime-switching jump-diffusion model, we identify the condition under which the pricing measures selected by the two approaches are identical.     

Valuation of the interest rate guarantee embedded in defined contribution pension plans

In this research, we derive the valuation formulae for a defined contribution pension plan associated with the minimum rate of return guarantees. Different from the previous studies, we work on the rate of return guarantee which is linked to the δ-year spot rate. The payoffs of interest rate guarantees can be viewed as a function of the exchange option. By employing Margrabe’s [Margrabe, W., 1978. The value of an option to exchange one asset for another. Journal of Finance 33, 177–186] option pricing approach, we derive general pricing formulae under the assumptions that the interest rate dynamics follow a single-factor HJM (1992) [Heath. D. et al., 1992. Bond pricing and the term structure of interest rates: a new methodology for contingent claims valuation. Econometrica 60, 77–105] interest rate model and the asset prices follow a geometric Brownian motion. The volatility of the forward rates is assumed to be exponentially decaying. The formula is explicit for valuing maturity guarantee (type-I guarantee). For multi-period guarantee (type-II guarantee), the analytical formula only exists when the guaranteed rate is the one-year spot rate. The accuracy of the valuation formulae is illustrated with numerical analysis. We also investigate the effect of mortality and the sensitivity of key parameters on the value of the guarantee. We find that type-II guarantee is much more costly than the type-I guarantee, especially with a long duration policy. The closed form solution provides the advantage in valuing pension guarantees.     

Convergence of the binomial tree method for Asian options in jump-diffusion models

The binomial tree methods (BTM), first proposed by Cox, Ross and Rubinstein [J. Cox, S. Ross, M. Rubinstein, Option pricing: A simplified approach, J. Finan. Econ. 7 (1979) 229-264] in diffusion models and extended by Amin [K.I. Amin, Jump diffusion option valuation in discrete time, J. Finance 48 (1993) 1833-1863] to jump-diffusion models, is one of the most popular approaches to pricing options. In this paper, we present a binomial tree method for Asian options in jump-diffusion models and show its equivalence to certain explicit difference scheme. Employing numerical analysis and the notion of viscosity solution, we prove the uniform convergence of the binomial tree method for European-style and American-style Asian options.     

股价遵循分数布朗运动的最大值期权定价模型

分数布朗运动由于具有自相似和长期相关等分形特性,已成为数理金融研究中更为合适的工具.通过假定股票价格服从几何分数布朗运动,构建了Ito分数Black--Scholes市场;接着在分数风险中性测度下,利用随机微分方程和拟鞅定价方法给出了分数Black-Scholes定价模型;进一步放松初始假定,讨论了多个标的情形的最大值期权定价问题.研究结果表明,与标准期权价格相比,分数期权价格要同时取决于到期日和Hurst参数.     

Esscher变换下扩展的欧式交换期权定价

文章研究Esscher变换下标的资产价格服从几何布朗运动的扩展的几种欧式交换期权(包括广义交换期权,复合交换期权,障碍交换期权,红绿灯期权)定价问题.首先,给出了带漂移布朗运动的反射原理和性质;其次,借助Gerber和Shiu (1994)给出了多维独立平稳增量过程和二维带漂移布朗运动的Esscher变换定义及其性质;最后,应用Esscher变换的相关理论给出了标的资产价格服从几何布朗运动的扩展的多种欧式交换期权定价公式.特别,本文所得到的期权定价公式与以往文献中给出的结果是一致的.     

Copula理论在复合期权定价中的应用

本文使用风险中性评价方法分三部分计算了复合期权的价值,针对需要计算联合分布的第二部分,通过选取边缘分布为GARCH模型的二元正态Copula模型进行推理验证,结果求得的联合分布与使用风险中性评价方法的计算结果一致.进一步计算得到了时间相依的复合期权的价值,并且给出了使用Bayes时序诊断法和Z检验来诊断期权定价时其出现价格大的波动时的局部拐点的方法.     

The quintessential option pricing formula under Lévy processes

The basic digital method for option pricing developed in Ingersoll [J. Ingersoll, Digital contracts: Simple tools for pricing complex derivatives, Journal of Business 73 (1) (2000) 67–88] and Buchen and Skipper [P. Buchen, M. Skipper, The quintessential option pricing formula, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, 2003, pp. 1–31] is generalized to a Lévy environment. The approach is combined with the mathematical methodology of Boyarchenko and Levendorski [S.I. Boyarchenko, S.Z. Levendorski, Non-Gaussian Merton–Black–Scholes theory, World Scientific, 2002] that employs pseudo-differential operators whose symbol is expressed in terms of the characteristic exponent of the underlying Lévy process. Some new valuation formulas are obtained.     

An extension of the Wang transform derived from Bühlmann’s economic premium principle for insurance risk

It is well known that the Wang transform [Wang, S.S., 2002. A universal framework for pricing financial and insurance risks. Astin Bull. 32, 213–234] for the pricing of financial and insurance risks is derived from Bühlmann’s economic premium principle [Bühlmann, H., 1980. An economic premium principle. Astin Bull. 11, 52–60]. The transform is extended to the multivariate setting by [Kijima M., 2006. A multivariate extension of equilibrium pricing transforms: The multivariate Esscher and Wang transforms for pricing financial and insurance risks, Astin Bull. 36, 269–283]. This paper further extends the results to derive a class of probability transforms that are consistent with Bühlmann’s pricing formula. The class of transforms is extended to the multivariate setting by using a Gaussian copula, while the multiperiod extension is also possible within the equilibrium pricing framework.     

Recursive estimation for continuous time stochastic volatility models

Volatility plays an important role in portfolio management and option pricing. Recently, there has been a growing interest in modeling volatility of the observed process by nonlinear stochastic process [S.J. Taylor, Asset Price Dynamics, Volatility, and Prediction, Princeton University Press, 2005; H. Kawakatsu, Specification and estimation of discrete time quadratic stochastic volatility models, Journal of Empirical Finance 14 (2007) 424–442]. In [H. Gong, A. Thavaneswaran, J. Singh, Filtering for some time series models by using transformation, Math Scientist 33 (2008) 141–147], we have studied the recursive estimates for discrete time stochastic volatility models driven by normal errors. In this paper, we study the recursive estimates for various classes of continuous time nonlinear non-Gaussian stochastic volatility models used for option pricing in finance.     

基于非对称漂移双gamma跳-扩散过程的创新幂型期权定价模型

针对假设股价的对数收益率布朗运动在期权定价时产生的无法解释股价对数收益率的尖峰厚尾和序列相关性的缺陷,采用了Zhang提出的非对称漂移双gamma跳-扩散过程来描述资产(股价)的对数收益率运动形态(该过程是kou提出的双指数跳-扩散过程的推广),并利用Esscher风险中性变换,研究了幂型期权的定价公式.还设计了两种创新的幂型期权,在非对称漂移双gamma跳-扩散过程下给出了相应的定价公式.     

Smoothly truncated stable distributions,GARCH-models,and option pricing

Although asset return distributions are known to be conditionally leptokurtic, this fact has rarely been addressed in the recent GARCH model literature. For this reason, we introduce the class of smoothly truncated stable distributions (STS distributions) and derive a generalized GARCH option pricing framework based on non-Gaussian innovations. Our empirical results show that (1) the model’s performance in the objective as well as the risk-neutral world is substantially improved by allowing for non-Gaussian innovations and (2) the model’s best option pricing performance is achieved with a new estimation approach where all model parameters are obtained from time-series information whereas the market price of risk and the spot variance are inverted from market prices of options. The paper subsumes a previous one under the title “A New Class of Probability Distributions and Its Application to Finance”. The authors gratefully acknowledge comments made by seminar participants at University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Washington, Seattle, Hochschule für Banken, Frankfurt, Cornell University, Princeton University, American University, Washington DC, and the Risk Management and Financial Engineering Conference held in Gainesville, FL in April 2005. All views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Sal. Oppenheim.     

Option pricing when the regime-switching risk is priced

We study the pricing of an option when the price dynamic of the underlying risky asset is governed by a Markov-modulated geometric Brownian motion. We suppose that the drift and volatility of the underlying risky asset are modulated by an observable continuous-time, finite-state Markov chain. We develop a two- stage pricing model which can price both the diffusion risk and the regime-switching risk based on the Esscher transform and the minimization of the maximum entropy between an equivalent martingale measure and the real-world probability measure over different states. Numerical experiments are conducted and their results reveal that the impact of pricing regime-switching risk on the option prices is significant.     

Option pricing under regime-switching models: Novel approaches removing path-dependence

A well-known approach for the pricing of options under regime-switching models is to use the regime-switching Esscher transform (also called regime-switching mean-correcting martingale measure) to obtain risk-neutrality. One way to handle regime unobservability consists in using regime probabilities that are filtered under this risk-neutral measure to compute risk-neutral expected payoffs. The current paper shows that this natural approach creates path-dependence issues within option price dynamics. Indeed, since the underlying asset price can be embedded in a Markov process under the physical measure even when regimes are unobservable, such path-dependence behavior of vanilla option prices is puzzling and may entail non-trivial theoretical features (e.g., time non-separable preferences) in a way that is difficult to characterize. This work develops novel and intuitive risk-neutral measures that can incorporate regime risk-aversion in a simple fashion and which do not lead to such path-dependence side effects. Numerical schemes either based on dynamic programming or Monte-Carlo simulations to compute option prices under the novel risk-neutral dynamics are presented.     

A note on the Swiss Solvency Test risk measure

In this paper we examine whether the Swiss Solvency Test risk measure is a coherent measure of risk as introduced in Artzner et al. [Artzner, P., Delbaen, F., Eber, J.M., Heath, D., 1999. Coherent measures of risk. Math. Finance 9, 203–228; Artzner, P., Delbaen, F., Eber, J.M., Heath, D., Ku, H., 2004. Coherent multiperiod risk adjusted values and Bellman’s principle. Working Paper. ETH Zurich]. We provide a simple example which shows that it does not satisfy the axiom of monotonicity. We then find, as a monotonic alternative, the greatest coherent risk measure which is majorized by the Swiss Solvency Test risk measure.     

Heath–Jarrow–Morton modelling of longevity bonds and the risk minimization of life insurance portfolios

This paper has two parts. In the first, we apply the Heath–Jarrow–Morton (HJM) methodology to the modelling of longevity bond prices. The idea of using the HJM methodology is not new. We can cite Cairns et al. [Cairns A.J., Blake D., Dowd K, 2006. Pricing death: framework for the valuation and the securitization of mortality risk. Astin Bull., 36 (1), 79–120], Miltersen and Persson [Miltersen K.R., Persson S.A., 2005. Is mortality dead? Stochastic force of mortality determined by arbitrage? Working Paper, University of Bergen] and Bauer [Bauer D., 2006. An arbitrage-free family of longevity bonds. Working Paper, Ulm University]. Unfortunately, none of these papers properly defines the prices of the longevity bonds they are supposed to be studying. Accordingly, the main contribution of this section is to describe a coherent theoretical setting in which we can properly define these longevity bond prices. A second objective of this section is to describe a more realistic longevity bonds market model than in previous papers. In particular, we introduce an additional effect of the actual mortality on the longevity bond prices, that does not appear in the literature. We also study multiple term structures of longevity bonds instead of the usual single term structure. In this framework, we derive a no-arbitrage condition for the longevity bond financial market. We also discuss the links between such HJM based models and the intensity models for longevity bonds such as those of Dahl [Dahl M., 2004. Stochastic mortality in life insurance: Market reserves and mortality-linked insurance contracts, Insurance: Math. Econom. 35 (1) 113–136], Biffis [Biffis E., 2005. Affine processes for dynamic mortality and actuarial valuations. Insurance: Math. Econom. 37, 443–468], Luciano and Vigna [Luciano E. and Vigna E., 2005. Non mean reverting affine processes for stochastic mortality. ICER working paper], Schrager [Schrager D.F., 2006. Affine stochastic mortality. Insurance: Math. Econom. 38, 81–97] and Hainaut and Devolder [Hainaut D., Devolder P., 2007. Mortality modelling with Lévy processes. Insurance: Math. Econom. (in press)], and suggest the standard pricing formula of these intensity models could be extended to more general settings.In the second part of this paper, we study the asset allocation problem of pure endowment and annuity portfolios. In order to solve this problem, we study the “risk-minimizing” strategies of such portfolios, when some but not all longevity bonds are available for trading. In this way, we introduce different basis risks.     

基于不确定理论的风险中性测度及其在欧式期权定价中的应用

首先运用不确定理论推导了相应的不确定风险中性测度,修正了已有文献中涨跌期权不满足无套利原则的问题.然后将所得的风险中性测度用于欧式看涨和看跌期权的定价,并验证了涨跌期权价格之间的平价关系.最后研究了一类利差期权的定价问题,结合定义的风险中性测度给出了期权的定价公式.所推导的不确定风险中性测度与经典的无套利原则相吻合,而且考虑到了问题描述过程中存在的不精确性,弥补了单纯依赖随机理论的不足,可广泛地应用于金融衍生品的定价过程,为投资分析提供一定的理论依据.     

RCA model with quadratic GARCH innovation distribution

Rapid development of time series models addressing volatility has recently been reported in the financial literature. Often the standardized residuals from an RCA (Random coefficient autoregressive) model still has fat tails, thus suggesting using a fat-tailed error distribution instead. Kurtosis of GARCH model plays an important role in option pricing applications with real data. This paper considers some volatility models with quadratic GARCH innovations and derive the kurtosis of the process.     

Pricing perpetual American catastrophe put options: A penalty function approach

The expected discounted penalty function proposed in the seminal paper by Gerber and Shiu [Gerber, H.U., Shiu, E.S.W., 1998. On the time value of ruin. North Amer. Actuarial J. 2 (1), 48-78] has been widely used to analyze the joint distribution of the time of ruin, the surplus immediately before ruin and the deficit at ruin, and the related quantities in ruin theory. However, few of its applications can be found beyond except that Gerber and Landry [Gerber, H.U., Landry, B., 1998. On the discount penalty at ruin in a jump-diffusion and the perpetual put option. Insurance: Math. Econ. 22, 263-276] explored its use for the pricing of perpetual American put options. In this paper, we further explore the use of the expected discounted penalty function and mathematical tools developed for the function to evaluate perpetual American catastrophe equity put options. We obtain the analytical expression for the price of perpetual American catastrophe equity put options and conduct a numerical implementation for a wide range of parameter values. We show that the use of the expected discounted penalty function enables us to evaluate the perpetual American catastrophe equity put option with minimal numerical work.