Static-arbitrage optimal subreplicating strategies for basket options

In this paper we investigate the possible values of basket options. Instead of postulating a model and pricing the basket option using that model, we consider the set of all models which are consistent with the observed prices of vanilla options of all strikes. In the case of basket options on two components we find, within this class, the model for which the price of the basket option is smallest. This price, as discovered by Rapuch and Roncalli, is associated to the lower Fréchet copula. We complement their result in this paper by describing an optimal subreplicating strategy. This strategy is associated with an explicit portfolio which consists of being long and short a series of calls with strikes chosen as the zeros of an auxiliary function.     

Pricing and Hedging of Lookback Options in Hyper-exponential Jump Diffusion Models

ABSTRACT

In this article, we consider the problem of pricing lookback options in certain exponential Lévy market models. While in the classic Black-Scholes models the price of such options can be calculated in closed form, for more general asset price model, one typically has to rely on (rather time-intense) Monte-Carlo or partial (integro)-differential equation (P(I)DE) methods. However, for Lévy processes with double exponentially distributed jumps, the lookback option price can be expressed as one-dimensional Laplace transform (cf. Kou, S. G., Petrella, G., & Wang, H. (2005). Pricing path-dependent options with jump risk via Laplace transforms. The Kyoto Economic Review, 74(9), 1–23.). The key ingredient to derive this representation is the explicit availability of the first passage time distribution for this particular Lévy process, which is well-known also for the more general class of hyper-exponential jump diffusions (HEJDs). In fact, Jeannin and Pistorius (Jeannin, M., & Pistorius, M. (2010). A transform approach to calculate prices and Greeks of barrier options driven by a class of Lévy processes. Quntitative Finance, 10(6), 629–644.) were able to derive formulae for the Laplace transformed price of certain barrier options in market models described by HEJD processes. Here, we similarly derive the Laplace transforms of floating and fixed strike lookback option prices and propose a numerical inversion scheme, which allows, like Fourier inversion methods for European vanilla options, the calculation of lookback options with different strikes in one shot. Additionally, we give semi-analytical formulae for several Greeks of the option price and discuss a method of extending the proposed method to generalized hyper-exponential (as e.g. NIG or CGMY) models by fitting a suitable HEJD process. Finally, we illustrate the theoretical findings by some numerical experiments.     

Sharp Upper and Lower Bounds for Basket Options

Given a basket option on two or more assets in a one‐period static hedging setting, the paper considers the problem of maximizing and minimizing the basket option price subject to the constraints of known option prices on the component stocks and consistency with forward prices and treat it as an optimization problem. Sharp upper bounds are derived for the general n‐asset case and sharp lower bounds for the two‐asset case, both in closed forms, of the price of the basket option. In the case n = 2 examples are given of discrete distributions attaining the bounds. Hedge ratios are also derived for optimal sub and super replicating portfolios consisting of the options on the individual underlying stocks and the stocks themselves.     

Multivariate option pricing using copulae

The complexity of financial products significantly increased in the past 10 years. In this paper, we investigate the pricing of basket options and more generally of complex exotic contracts depending on multiple indices. Our approach assumes that the underlying assets evolve as dependent GARCH(1, 1) processes. The dependence among the assets is modeled using a copula based on pair‐copula constructions. Unlike most previous studies on this topic, we do not assume that the dependence observed between historical asset prices is similar to the dependence under the risk‐neutral probability. The method is illustrated with US market data on basket options written on two or three international indices. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computing arbitrage upper bounds on basket options in the presence of bid–ask spreads

We study the problem of computing the sharpest static-arbitrage upper bound on the price of a European basket option, given the bid–ask prices of vanilla call options in the underlying securities. We show that this semi-infinite problem can be recast as a linear program whose size is linear in the input data size. These developments advance previous related results, and enhance the practical value of static-arbitrage bounds as a pricing technique by taking into account the presence of bid–ask spreads. We illustrate our results by computing upper bounds on the price of a DJX basket option. The MATLAB code used to compute these bounds is available online at www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jfp/arbitragebounds.html.     

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.     

Hybrid iterative scheme by a relaxed extragradient method for solutions of equilibrium problems and a general system of variational inequalities with application to optimization

In this paper, we introduce a new iterative process for finding the common element of the set of fixed points of a nonexpansive mapping, the set of solutions of an equilibrium problem and the solutions of the variational inequality problem for two inverse-strongly monotone mappings. We introduce a new viscosity relaxed extragradient approximation method which is based on the so-called relaxed extragradient method and the viscosity approximation method. We show that the sequence converges strongly to a common element of the above three sets under some parametric controlling conditions. Moreover, using the above theorem, we can apply to finding solutions of a general system of variational inequality and a zero of a maximal monotone operator in a real Hilbert space. The results of this paper extended, improved and connected with the results of Ceng et al., [L.-C. Ceng, C.-Y. Wang, J.-C. Yao, Strong convergence theorems by a relaxed extragradient method for a general system of variational inequalities, Math. Meth. Oper. Res. 67 (2008), 375–390], Plubtieng and Punpaeng, [S. Plubtieng, R. Punpaeng, A new iterative method for equilibrium problems and fixed point problems of nonexpansive mappings and monotone mappings, Appl. Math. Comput. 197 (2) (2008) 548–558] Su et al., [Y. Su, et al., An iterative method of solution for equilibrium and optimization problems, Nonlinear Anal. 69 (8) (2008) 2709–2719], Li and Song [Liwei Li, W. Song, A hybrid of the extragradient method and proximal point algorithm for inverse strongly monotone operators and maximal monotone operators in Banach spaces, Nonlinear Anal.: Hybrid Syst. 1 (3) (2007), 398-413] and many others.     

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.     

Pricing a European Basket Option in the Presence of Proportional Transaction Costs

A crucial assumption in the Black–Scholes theory of options pricing is the no transaction costs assumption. However, following such a strategy in the presence of transaction costs would lead to immediate ruin. This paper presents a stochastic control approach to the pricing and hedging of a European basket option, dependent on primitive assets whose prices are modelled as lognormal diffusions, in the presence of costs proportional to the size of the transaction. Under certain assumptions on the individual preferences, it is able to reduce the dimensionality of the resulting control problem. This facilitates considerably the study of the value function and the characterisation of the optimal trading policy. For solution of the problem a perturbation analysis scheme is utilized to derive a non‐trivial, asymptotically optimal result. The findings reveal that this result can be expressed by means of a small correction to the corresponding solution of the frictionless Black–Scholes type problem, resembling a multi‐dimensional ‘bandwidth’ around the vanilla case, which, moreover, is readily tractable.     

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.     

Regret aversion and annuity risk in defined contribution pension plans

The high value of the implicit option to choose a retirement date at which interest rates are particularly high and life annuities relatively cheap, leads to the possibility to introduce regret aversion in the retirement investment decision of defined contribution plan participants. As a remedy for regret aversion in retirement investment decisions, this paper develops and prices a lookback option on a life annuity contract. We determine a closed-form option value under the restriction that the option holder invests risklessly during the time to maturity of the option and without the guarantee that the exact amount of retirement wealth is converted into a life annuity at retirement. Thereafter the investment restriction is relaxed and the guarantee of exact conversion is imposed and the option is priced via Monte Carlo simulations in an economic environment with a stochastic discount factor. Option price sensitivities are determined via the pricing of alternative options. We find that the price of a lookback option, with a maturity of three years, amounts to 8%–9% of the wealth at the option issuance date. The option price is highly sensitive to the exercise price of the option, i.e. pricing alternative options (e.g. Asian) substantially lowers the price. Time to maturity and interest rate volatility are other important option price drivers. Asset allocation decisions and initial interest rates hardly affect the option price.     

On extracting information implied in options

Options are financial instruments with a payoff depending on future states of the underlying asset. Therefore option markets contain information about expectations of the market participants about market conditions, e.g. current uncertainty on the market and corresponding risk. A standard measure of risk calculated from plain vanilla options is the implied volatility (IV). IV can be understood as an estimate of the volatility of returns in future period. Another concept based on the option markets is the state-price density (SPD) that is a density of the future states of the underlying asset. From raw data we can recover the IV function by nonparametric smoothing methods. Smoothed IV estimated by standard techniques may lead to a non-positive SPD which violates no arbitrage criteria. In this paper, we combine the IV smoothing with SPD estimation in order to correct these problems. We propose to use the local polynomial smoothing technique. The elegance of this approach is that it yields all quantities needed to calculate the corresponding SPD. Our approach operates only on the IVs—a major improvement comparing to the earlier multi-step approaches moving through the Black–Scholes formula from the prices to IVs and vice-versa.     

Options on constant proportion portfolio insurance with guaranteed minimum equity exposure

In the present paper we study a new exotic option offering participation in a dynamic asset allocation strategy, which is an extension of the well‐known Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (CPPI) strategy. Our novel approach consists in assuming that the percentage of wealth invested in stocks cannot go under a fixed level, called guaranteed minimum equity exposure (GMEE). In particular, our proposal ensures to overcome the so‐called cash‐in risk, typically related to a standard CPPI technique, simultaneously guaranteeing the equity market participation. We look deeper into the valuation of call and put options linked to this new CPPI‐GMEE strategy. A particular attention is devoted to the analysis of key parameters' value as to gain a better understanding of the sensitivities of the option prices, when changing, for example, the embedded guarantee level. To show the effectiveness of our proposal we provide a detailed computational analysis within the Heston‐Vasicek framework, numerically comparing the evaluation of the price of European plain vanilla options when the underlying is either a purely risky asset, a standard CPPI portfolio and a CPPI with GMEE.     

On the ruin time distribution for a Sparre Andersen process with exponential claim sizes

We derive a closed-form (infinite series) representation for the distribution of the ruin time for the Sparre Andersen model with exponentially distributed claims. This extends a recent result of Dickson et al. [Dickson, D.C.M., Hughes, B.D., Zhang, L., 2005. The density of the time to ruin for a Sparre Andersen process with Erlang arrivals and exponential claims. Scand. Actuar. J., 358–376] for such processes with Erlang inter-claim times. The derivation is based on transforming the original boundary crossing problem to an equivalent one on linear lower boundary crossing by a spectrally positive Lévy process. We illustrate our result in the cases of gamma, mixed exponential and inverse Gaussian inter-claim time distributions.     

DG method for the numerical pricing of two-asset European-style Asian options with fixed strike

The evaluation of option premium is a very delicate issue arising from the assumptions made under a financial market model, and pricing of a wide range of options is generally feasible only when numerical methods are involved. This paper is based on our recent research on numerical pricing of path-dependent multi-asset options and extends these results also to the case of Asian options with fixed strike. First, we recall the three-dimensional backward parabolic PDE describing the evolution of European-style Asian option contracts on two assets, whose payoff depends on the difference of the strike price and the average value of the basket of two underlying assets during the life of the option. Further, a suitable transformation of variables respecting this complex form of a payoff function reduces the problem to a two-dimensional equation belonging to the class of convection-diffusion problems and the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is applied to it in order to utilize its solving potentials. The whole procedure is accompanied with theoretical results and differences to the floating strike case are discussed. Finally, reference numerical experiments on real market data illustrate comprehensive empirical findings on Asian options.     

Testing robustness in calibration of stochastic volatility models

Many numerical aspects are involved in parameter estimation of stochastic volatility models. We investigate a model for stochastic volatility suggested by Hobson and Rogers [Complete models with stochastic volatility, Mathematical Finance 8 (1998) 27] and we focus on its calibration performance with respect to numerical methodology.In recent financial literature there are many papers dealing with stochastic volatility models and their capability in capturing European option prices; in Figà-Talamanca and Guerra [Towards a coherent volatility pricing model: An empirical comparison, Financial Modelling, Phisyca-Verlag, 2000] a comparison between some of the most significant models is done. The model proposed by Hobson and Rogers seems to describe quite well the dynamics of volatility.In Figà-Talamanca and Guerra [Fitting the smile by a complete model, submitted] a deep investigation of the Hobson and Rogers model was put forward, introducing different ways of parameters' estimation. In this paper we test the robustness of the numerical procedures involved in calibration: the quadrature formula to compute the integral in the definition of some state variables, called offsets, that represent the weight of the historical log-returns, the discretization schemes adopted to solve the stochastic differential equation for volatility and the number of simulations in the Monte Carlo procedure introduced to obtain the option price.The main results can be summarized as follows. The choice of a high order of convergence scheme is not fully justified because the option prices computed via calibration method are not sensitive to the use of a scheme with 2.0 order of convergence or greater. The refining of the approximation rule for the integral, on the contrary, allows to compute option prices that are often closer to market prices. In conclusion, a number of 10 000 simulations seems to be sufficient to compute the option price and a higher number can only slow down the numerical procedure.     

Matching asymptotics in path-dependent option pricing

The valuation of path-dependent options in finance creates many interesting mathematical challenges. Among them are a large Delta and Gamma near the expiry leading to a big error in pricing those exotic options as well as European vanilla options. Also, the higher order corrections of the asymptotic prices of the derivatives in some stochastic volatility models are difficult to be evaluated. In this paper we use the method of matched asymptotic expansions to obtain more practical values of lookback and barrier option prices near the expiry. Our results verify that matching asymptotics is a useful tool for PDE methods in path-dependent option pricing.     

The Herd Behavior Index: A new measure for the implied degree of co-movement in stock markets

We introduce a new and easy-to-calculate measure for the expected degree of herd behavior or co-movement between stock prices. This forward looking measure is model-independent and based on observed option data. It is baptized the Herd Behavior Index (HIX).The degree of co-movement in a stock market can be determined by comparing the observed market situation with the extreme (theoretical) situation under which the whole system is driven by a single factor. The HIX is then defined as the ratio of an option-based estimate of the risk-neutral variance of the market index and an option-based estimate of the corresponding variance in case of the extreme single factor market situation.The HIX can be determined for any market index provided an appropriate series of vanilla options is traded on this index as well as on its components. As an illustration, we determine historical values of the 30-days HIX for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, covering the period January 2003 to October 2009.     

Knight不确定下基于无穷纯跳Levy过程的一般风险资产的动态最小定价

研究了具有Knight不确定性的金融市场下的一般风险资产的动态最小定价,利用倒向随机微分方程(BSDE)理论以及时间-风险折现方法,推导出了基于无穷纯跳Levy过程的一般风险资产在实际概率测度下的动态定价公式及其在Knight不确定性控制集合上的动态最小定价.最后给出了一个欧式看涨期权动态最小定价的例子,并导出期权价格的显示表达式.在Knight不确定环境下,引入Levy过程来描述股票价格的动态走势,更加符合实际市场,可广泛地应用于一般风险资产的定价过程,这为投资分析提供一定的理论依据.     

Risk-neutral valuation of power barrier options

Barrier options are standard exotic options traded in the financial market. These instruments are different from the vanilla options as the payoff of the option depends on whether the underlying asset price reaches a predetermined barrier level, during the life of the option. In this work, we extend the vanilla call barrier options to power call barrier options where the underlying asset price is raised to a constant power, within the standard Black–Scholes framework. It is demonstrated that the pricing of the power barrier options can be obtained from standard barrier options by a transformation which involves the power contract and a adjusted barrier. Numerical results are considered.