Progressive Enlargement of Filtrations and Backward Stochastic Differential Equations with Jumps

This work deals with backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs for short) with random marked jumps, and their applications to default risk. We show that these BSDEs are linked with Brownian BSDEs through the decomposition of processes with respect to the progressive enlargement of filtrations. We prove that the equations have solutions if the associated Brownian BSDEs have solutions. We also provide a uniqueness theorem for BSDEs with jumps by giving a comparison theorem based on the comparison for Brownian BSDEs. We give in particular some results for quadratic BSDEs. As applications, we study the pricing and the hedging of a European option in a market with a single jump, and the utility maximization problem in an incomplete market with a finite number of jumps.     

Quadratic Hedging Methods for Defaultable Claims

We apply the local risk-minimization approach to defaultable claims and we compare it with intensity-based evaluation formulas and the mean-variance hedging. We solve analytically the problem of finding respectively the hedging strategy and the associated portfolio for the three methods in the case of a default put option with random recovery at maturity.     

The network structure and systemic risk in the global non-life insurance market

This paper contributes to the literature on systemic risk by assessing the systemic importance of insurers in the global non-life insurance market. First, we estimate the bilateral reinsurance claims matrix using the aggregate outstanding reinsurance data from ISIS and theoretically analyze the interconnectedness in the global reinsurance network using network indicators. The robustness of the estimated matrix is fully assured by sensitivity analysis. Second, we theoretically analyze the contagious defaults introducing the Eisenberg–Noe framework. Reinsurers play a dominant role in the reinsurance network and most of them are included in our data sample. The network analysis finds that some reinsurers with large centrality measures are central in the hierarchical structure of the network. The default analysis shows the occurrences of many stand-alone defaults and only one contagious default via the global reinsurance network after the global financial crisis. In addition, one stress test based on a hypothetical severe stress scenario predicts a few occurrences of contagious defaults in the future. It follows from these analyses that systemic risk via the global reinsurance network is relatively restricted in the global non-life insurance market. In conclusion, our methodology would help supervisory authorities develop an assessment approach for interconnectedness in the global reinsurance network and aid the implementation of insurer stress tests for default contagion.     

On Mean-Variance Hedging of Bond Options with Stochastic Risk Premium Factor

We consider the mean-variance hedging problem for pricing bond options using the yield curve as the observation. The model considered contains infinite-dimensional noise sources with the stochastically- varying risk premium. Hence our model is incomplete. We consider mean-variance hedging under the real world measure and obtain an explicit form of the optimal hedging strategy.     

Sufficient Stochastic Maximum Principle in a Regime-Switching Diffusion Model

We prove a sufficient stochastic maximum principle for the optimal control of a regime-switching diffusion model. We show the connection to dynamic programming and we apply the result to a quadratic loss minimization problem, which can be used to solve a mean-variance portfolio selection problem.     

Stochastic control under progressive enlargement of filtrations and applications to multiple defaults risk management

We formulate and investigate a general stochastic control problem under a progressive enlargement of filtration. The global information is enlarged from a reference filtration and the knowledge of multiple random times together with associated marks when they occur. By working under a density hypothesis on the conditional joint distribution of the random times and marks, we prove a decomposition of the original stochastic control problem under the global filtration into classical stochastic control problems under the reference filtration, which is determined in a finite backward induction. Our method revisits and extends in particular stochastic control of diffusion processes with a finite number of jumps. This study is motivated by optimization problems arising in default risk management, and we provide applications of our decomposition result for the indifference pricing of defaultable claims, and the optimal investment under bilateral counterparty risk. The solutions are expressed in terms of BSDEs involving only Brownian filtration, and remarkably without jump terms coming from the default times and marks in the global filtration.     

Some results on quadratic hedging with insider trading

We consider the hedging problem in an arbitrage-free incomplete financial market, where there are two kinds of investors with different levels of information about the future price evolution, described by two filtrations F and G=F∨σ(G) where G is a given r.v. representing the additional information. We focus on two types of quadratic approaches to hedge a given square-integrable contingent claim: local risk minimization (LRM) and mean-variance hedging (MVH). By using initial enlargement of filtrations techniques, we solve the hedging problem for both investors and compare their optimal strategies under both approaches.

In particular, for LRM, we show that for a large class of additional non trivial r.v.s G both investors will pursue the same locally risk minimizing portfolio strategy and the cost process of the ordinary agent is just the projection on F of that of the insider. For the MVH approach, we study also some general stochastic volatility model, including Hull and White, Heston and Stein and Stein models. In this more specific setting and for r.v.s G which are measurable with respect to the filtration generated by the volatility process, we obtain an expression for the insider optimal strategy in terms of the ordinary agent optimal strategy plus a process admitting a simple feedback-type representation.     

Mean-Variance Hedging on Uncertain Time Horizon in a Market with a Jump

In this work, we study the problem of mean-variance hedging with a random horizon T∧τ, where T is a deterministic constant and τ is a jump time of the underlying asset price process. We first formulate this problem as a stochastic control problem and relate it to a system of BSDEs with a jump. We then provide a verification theorem which gives the optimal strategy for the mean-variance hedging using the solution of the previous system of BSDEs. Finally, we prove that this system of BSDEs admits a solution via a decomposition approach coming from filtration enlargement theory.     

The Law of Large Numbers for self-exciting correlated defaults

We consider a model of correlated defaults in which the default times of multiple entities depend not only on common and specific factors, but also on the extent of past defaults in the market, via the average loss process, including the average number of defaults as a special case. The paper characterizes the average loss process when the number of entities becomes large, showing that under some monotonicity conditions the limiting average loss process can be determined by a fixed point problem. We also show that the Law of Large Numbers holds under certain compatibility conditions.     

A numerically efficient closed-form representation of mean-variance hedging for exponential additive processes based on Malliavin calculus

ABSTRACT

We focus on mean-variance hedging problem for models whose asset price follows an exponential additive process. Some representations of mean-variance hedging strategies for jump-type models have already been suggested, but none is suited to develop numerical methods of the values of strategies for any given time up to the maturity. In this paper, we aim to derive a new explicit closed-form representation, which enables us to develop an efficient numerical method using the fast Fourier transforms. Note that our representation is described in terms of Malliavin derivatives. In addition, we illustrate numerical results for exponential Lévy models.     

Pricing and hedging of variable annuities with state-dependent fees

We investigate the problem of pricing and hedging variable annuity contracts for which the fee deducted from the policyholder’s account depends on the account value. It is believed that state-dependent fees are beneficial to policyholders and insurers since they reduce policyholders’ incentives to lapse the policies and match the costs incurred by policyholders with the pay-offs received from embedded guarantees. We consider an incomplete financial market which consists of two risky assets modelled with a two-dimensional Lévy process. One of the assets is a security which can be traded by the insurer, and the second asset is a security which is the underlying fund for the variable annuity contract. In our model we derive an equation from which the fee for the guaranteed benefit can be calculated and we characterize a strategy which allows the insurer to hedge the benefit. To solve the pricing and hedging problem in an incomplete financial market we apply a quadratic objective.     

Hedging electricity swaptions using partial integro-differential equations

The basic contracts traded on energy exchanges are swaps involving the delivery of electricity for fixed-rate payments over a certain period of time. The main objective of this article is to solve the quadratic hedging problem for European options on these swaps, known as electricity swaptions. We consider a general class of Hilbert space valued exponential jump-diffusion models. Since the forward curve is an infinite-dimensional object, but only a finite set of traded contracts are available for hedging, the market is inherently incomplete. We derive the optimization problem for the quadratic hedging problem under the risk neutral measure and state a representation of its solution, which is the starting point for numerical algorithms.     

Backward stochastic partial differential equations related to utility maximization and hedging

We study the utility maximization problem, the problem of minimization of the hedging error and the corresponding dual problems using dynamic programming approach. We consider an incomplete financial market model, where the dynamics of asset prices are described by an ℝ^d-valued continuous semimartingale. Under some regularity assumptions, we derive the backward stochastic PDEs for the value functions related to these problems, and for the primal problem, we show that the strategy is optimal if and only if the corresponding wealth process satisfies a certain forward SDE. As examples we consider the mean-variance hedging problem and the cases of power, exponential, logarithmic utilities, and corresponding dual problems. __________ Translated from Sovremennaya Matematika i Ee Prilozheniya (Contemporary Mathematics and Its Applications), Vol. 45, Martingale Theory and Its Application, 2007.     

An inexact spectral bundle method for convex quadratic semidefinite programming

We present an inexact spectral bundle method for solving convex quadratic semidefinite optimization problems. This method is a first-order method, hence requires much less computational cost in each iteration than second-order approaches such as interior-point methods. In each iteration of our method, we solve an eigenvalue minimization problem inexactly, and solve a small convex quadratic semidefinite program as a subproblem. We give a proof of the global convergence of this method using techniques from the analysis of the standard bundle method, and provide a global error bound under a Slater type condition for the problem in question. Numerical experiments with matrices of order up to 3000 are performed, and the computational results establish the effectiveness of this method.     

Discrete time mean-variance analysis with singular second moment matrixes and an exogenous liability

We apply the dynamic programming methods to compute the analytical solution of the dynamic mean-variance optimization problem affected by an exogenous liability in a multi-periods market model with singular second moment matrixes of the return vector of assets. We use orthogonai transformations to overcome the difficulty produced by those singular matrixes, and the analytical form of the efficient frontier is obtained. As an application, the explicit form of the optimal mean-variance hedging strategy is also obtained for our model.     

Global adapted solution of one-dimensional backward stochastic Riccati equations,with application to the mean–variance hedging

Backward stochastic Riccati equations are motivated by the solution of general linear quadratic optimal stochastic control problems with random coefficients, and the solution has been open in the general case. One distinguishing difficult feature is that the drift contains a quadratic term of the second unknown variable. In this paper, we obtain the global existence and uniqueness result for a general one-dimensional backward stochastic Riccati equation. This solves the one-dimensional case of Bismut–Peng's problem which was initially proposed by Bismut (Lecture Notes in Math. 649 (1978) 180). We use an approximation technique by constructing a sequence of monotone drifts and then passing to the limit. We make full use of the special structure of the underlying Riccati equation. The singular case is also discussed. Finally, the above results are applied to solve the mean–variance hedging problem with general random market conditions.     

Pricing Defaultable Bonds in a Markov Modulated Market

We address the problem of pricing defaultable bonds in a Markov modulated market. Using Merton's structural approach we show that various types of defaultable bonds are combination of European type contingent claims. Thus pricing a defaultable bond is tantamount to pricing a contingent claim in a Markov modulated market. Since the market is incomplete, we use the method of quadratic hedging and minimal martingale measure to derive locally risk minimizing derivative prices, hedging strategies and the corresponding residual risks. The price of defaultable bonds are obtained as solutions to a system of PDEs with weak coupling subject to appropriate terminal and boundary conditions. We solve the system of PDEs numerically and carry out a numerical investigation for the defaultable bond prices. We compare their credit spreads with some of the existing models. We observe higher spreads in the Markov modulated market. We show how business cycles can be easily incorporated in the proposed framework. We demonstrate the impact on spreads of the inclusion of rare states that attempt to capture a tight liquidity situation. These states are characterized by low risk-free interest rate, high payout rate and high volatility.     

Hedging the Risk of Delayed Data in Defaultable Markets

We investigate hedging the risk of delayed data in certain defaultable securities through the local risk minimization approach. From a financial point of view, this indicates that in addition to the risk of default, investors also face incomplete accounting data. In our analysis, the delay is modelled by a random time change, and different levels of information, including the full market’s, management’s, and investors’ information, are distinguished. We obtain semi-explicit solutions for pseudo locally risk minimizing hedging strategies from the perspective of investors where the results are presented according to the solutions of partial differential equations. In obtaining the main results of this paper, we apply a filtration expansion theorem that determines the canonical decomposition of stopped special semimartingales in an enlarged filtration of investors’ information.     

Nonlinear programming via an exact penalty function: Asymptotic analysis

In this paper we consider the final stage of a ‘global’ method to solve the nonlinear programming problem. We prove 2-step superlinear convergence. In the process of analyzing this asymptotic behavior, we compare our method (theoretically) to the popular successive quadratic programming approach.     

Additive preconditioning, eigenspaces, and the inverse iteration

We incorporate our recent preconditioning techniques into the classical inverse power (Rayleigh quotient) iteration for computing matrix eigenvectors. Every loop of this iteration essentially amounts to solving an ill conditioned linear system of equations. Due to our modification we solve a well conditioned linear system instead. We prove that this modification preserves local quadratic convergence, show experimentally that fast global convergence is preserved as well, and yield similar results for higher order inverse iteration, covering the cases of multiple and clustered eigenvalues.