Bayesian sequential testing for Lévy processes with diffusion and jump components

We study the Bayesian problem of sequential testing of two simple hypotheses about the Lévy-Khintchine triplet of a Lévy process, having diffusion component, represented by a Brownian motion with drift, and jump component of finite variation. The method of proof consists of reducing the original optimal stopping problem to a free-boundary problem. We show it is characterized by a second order integro-differential equation, that the unknown value function solves on the continuation region, and by the smooth fit principle, which holds at the unknown boundary points. Several examples are presented.     

Minimal relative entropy for equivalent martingale measures by low-discrepancy sequence in Lévy process

In this paper, we focused on computing the minimal relative entropy between the original probability and all of the equivalent martin gale measure for the Lévy process. For this purpose, the quasiMonte Carlo method is used. The probability with minimal relative entropy has many suitable properties. This probability has the minimal Kullback-Leibler distance to the original probability. Also, by using the minimal relative entropy the exponential utility indifference price can be found. In this paper, the Monte Carlo and quasi-Monte Carlo methods have been applied. In the quasi-Monte Carlo method, two types of widely used lowdiscrepancy sequences, Halton sequence and Sobol sequence, are used. These methods have been used for exponential Lévy process such as variance gamma and CGMY process. In these two processes, the minimal relative entropy has been computed by Monte Carlo and quasi-Monte Carlo, and compared their results. The results show that quasi-Monte Carlo with Sobol sequence performs better in terms of fast convergence and less error. Finally, this method by fitting the variance gamma model and parameters estimation for the model has been implemented for financial data and the corresponding minimal relative entropy has been computed.     

Assessing Markov property in multistate transition models with applications to credit risk modeling

Multistate transition models are increasingly used in credit risk applications as they allow us to quantify the evolution of the process among different states. If the process is Markov, analysis and prediction are substantially simpler, so analysts would like to use these models if they are applicable. In this paper, we develop a procedure for assessing the Markov hypothesis and discuss different ways of implementing the test procedure. One issue when sample size is large is that the statistical test procedures will detect even small deviations from the Markov model when these differences are not of practical interest. To address this problem, we propose an approach to formulate and test the null hypothesis of “weak non‐Markov.” The situation where the transition probabilities are heterogeneous is also examined, and approaches to accommodate this case are indicated. Simulation studies are used extensively to study the properties of the procedures, and two applications are to illustrate the results.     

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.     

Uniform asymptotics for ruin probabilities in a dependent renewal risk model with stochastic return on investments

In this paper, an insurer is allowed to make risk-free and risky investments, and the price process of the investment portfolio is described as an exponential Lévy process. We study the asymptotic tail behavior for a non-standard renewal risk model with dependence structures. The claim sizes are assumed to follow a one-sided linear process with independent and identically distributed step sizes, and the step sizes and inter-arrival times form a sequence of independent and identically distributed random pairs with a dependence structure. When the step-size distribution is heavy tailed, we obtain some uniform asymptotics for the finite-and infinite-time ruin probabilities.