Option pricing and hedging for optimized Lévy driven stochastic volatility models

This paper pays attention to Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) based stochastic volatility models with marginal law given by Classical Tempered Stable (CTS) distribution and Normal Inverse Gaussian (NIG) distribution, which are subclasses of infinite activity Lévy processes and are compared to finite activity Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard (BNS) model. They are applied to option pricing and hedging in capturing leptokurtic features in asset returns and clustering effect in volatility that are consistently observed phenomena in underlying asset dynamics. The analytical formula of option pricing can be obtained through use of characteristic functions and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique. Additionally, we introduce two hybrid optimization techniques such as hybrid Particle Swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and hybrid Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm into parameters calibration schemes to improve the calibration quality for newly constructed models. Finally, we conduct experiments on Chinese emerging option markets to examine the performance of proposed models exploiting hybrid optimization techniques.     

Solutions to an integro-differential parabolic problem arising in the pricing of financial options in a Lévy market

We study an integro-differential parabolic problem modeling a process with jumps arising in financial mathematics. Under suitable conditions, we prove the existence of weak solutions to a more general integro-differential equation by using the Schaefer’s fixed point theorem and generalize the result to unbounded domains.     

Solutions to a gradient-dependent integro-differential parabolic problem arising in the pricing of financial options in a Lévy market

We study an integro-differential parabolic problem modeling a process with jumps arising in financial mathematics. Under suitable conditions, we prove the existence of solutions in a general domain by proving a uniform bound on an iterative sequence of solutions and then applying the Arzelà–Ascoli theorem.     

Local Malliavin calculus for Lévy processes and applications

The Malliavin derivative operator for the Poisson process introduced by Carlen and Pardoux [Differential calculus and integration by parts on a Poisson space, in Stochastics, Algebra and Analysis in Classical and Quantum Dynamics, S. Albeverio et al. (eds), Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1990, pp. 63–73] is extended to Lévy processes. It is a true derivative operator (in the sense that it satisfies the chain rule), and we deduce a sufficient condition for the absolute continuity of functionals of the Lévy process. As an application, we analyse the absolute continuity of the law of the solution of some stochastic differential equations with jumps.     

Series Representations for Multivariate Time-Changed Lévy Models

In this paper, we analyze a Lévy model based on two popular concepts - subordination and Lévy copulas. More precisely, we consider a two-dimensional Lévy process such that each component is a time-changed (subordinated) Brownian motion and the dependence between subordinators is described via some Lévy copula. The main result of this paper is the series representation for our model, which can be efficiently used for simulation purposes.     

Approximate indifference pricing in exponential Lévy models

Financial markets based on Lévy processes are typically incomplete and option prices depend on risk attitudes of individual agents. In this context, the notion of utility indifference price has gained popularity in the academic circles. Although theoretically very appealing, this pricing method remains difficult to apply in practice, due to the high computational cost of solving the non-linear partial integro-differential equation associated to the indifference price. In this work, we develop closed-form approximations to exponential utility indifference prices in exponential Lévy models. To this end, we first establish a new non-asymptotic approximation of the indifference price which extends earlier results on small risk aversion asymptotics of this quantity. Next, we use this formula to derive a closed-form approximation of the indifference price by treating the Lévy model as a perturbation of the Black–Scholes model. This extends the methodology introduced in a recent paper for smooth linear functionals of Lévy processes (?erný et al. 2013) to non-linear and non-smooth functionals. Our formula represents the indifference price as the linear combination of the Black–Scholes price and correction terms which depend on the variance, skewness and kurtosis of the underlying Lévy process, and the derivatives of the Black–Scholes price. As a by-product, we obtain a simple approximation for the spread between the buyer’s and the seller’s indifference price. This formula allows to quantify, in a model-independent fashion, how sensitive a given product is to jump risk when jump size is small.     

Stochastic control of SDEs associated with Lévy generators and application to financial optimization

This paper is concerned with the optimal control of jump type stochastic differential equations associated with (general) Lévy generators. The maximum principle is formulated for the solutions of the equations, which is inspired by N. C. Framstad, B. Øksendal and A. Sulem [J. Optim. Theory Appl., 2004, 121: 77–98] (and a continuation, J. Bennett and J. -L. Wu [Front. Math. China, 2007, 2(4): 539–558]). The result is then applied to optimization problems in financial models driven by Lévy-type processes.     

Viscosity solutions and the pricing of European-style options in a Markov-modulated exponential Lévy model

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate the pricing problem of a European-style contingent claim under a Markov-modulated exponential Lévy model. One of the main feature of this model is the modulator factor which takes into account the empirical facts observed in asset prices dynamics such as the long-term (stochastic) variability and time inhomogeneities. Using the viscosity solutions framework, we show that the value of a European-style option is the unique viscosity solution of a system of coupled linear Partial Integro-Differential Equations when the payoff function satisfies a Lipschitz condition. Moreover, we propose a numerical scheme for approximating solution of this system and discuss its stability, consistency and convergence.     

Symmetric rearrangements around infinity with applications to Lévy processes

We prove a new rearrangement inequality for multiple integrals, which partly generalizes a result of Friedberg and Luttinger (Arch Ration Mech 61:35–44, 1976) and can be interpreted as involving symmetric rearrangements of domains around $\infty $ . As applications, we prove two comparison results for general Lévy processes and their symmetric rearrangements. The first application concerns the survival probability of a point particle in a Poisson field of moving traps following independent Lévy motions. We show that the survival probability can only increase if the point particle does not move, and the traps and the Lévy motions are symmetrically rearranged. This essentially generalizes an isoperimetric inequality of Peres and Sousi (Geom Funct Anal 22(4):1000–1014, 2012) for the Wiener sausage. In the second application, we show that the $q$ -capacity of a Borel measurable set for a Lévy process can only decrease if the set and the Lévy process are symmetrically rearranged. This result generalizes an inequality obtained by Watanabe (Z Wahrsch Verw Gebiete 63:487–499, 1983) for symmetric Lévy processes.     

Transportation distances and noise sensitivity of multiplicative Lévy SDE with applications

This article assesses the distance between the laws of stochastic differential equations with multiplicative Lévy noise on path space in terms of their characteristics. The notion of transportation distance on the set of Lévy kernels introduced by Kosenkova and Kulik yields a natural and statistically tractable upper bound on the noise sensitivity. This extends recent results for the additive case in terms of coupling distances to the multiplicative case. The strength of this notion is shown in a statistical implementation for simulations and the example of a benchmark time series in paleoclimate.     

Weak approximation of the complex Brownian sheet from a Lévy sheet and applications to SPDEs

We consider a Lévy process in the plane and we use it to construct a family of complex-valued random fields that we show to converge in law, in the space of continuous functions, to a complex Brownian sheet. We apply this result to obtain weak approximations of the random field solution to a semilinear one-dimensional stochastic heat equation driven by the space–time white noise.     

Lévy–Khintchine Representations of the Weighted Geometric Mean and the Logarithmic Mean

In the paper, the authors introduce the concept “degree of complete Bernstein function”, establish Lévy–Khintchine representations of the weighted geometric mean and the logarithmic mean by Cauchy integral formula, and obtain that the weighted geometric mean and the logarithmic mean are complete Bernstein functions of degree 0.     

Feynman path integrals and asymptotic expansions for transition probability densities of some Lévy driven financial markets

In this paper we implement the method of Feynman path integral for the analysis of option pricing for certain Lévy process driven financial markets. For such markets, we find closed form solutions of transition probability density functions of option pricing in terms of various special functions. Asymptotic analysis of transition probability density functions is provided. We also find expressions for transition probability density functions in terms of various special functions for certain Lévy process driven market where the interest rate is stochastic.     

Transition Density Estimates for a Class of Lévy and?Lévy-Type Processes

We show on- and off-diagonal upper estimates for the transition densities of symmetric Lévy and Lévy-type processes. To get the on-diagonal estimates, we prove a Nash-type inequality for the related Dirichlet form. For the off-diagonal estimates, we assume that the characteristic function of a Lévy(-type) process is analytic, which allows us to apply the complex analysis technique.     

Exponential convergence in probability for empirical means of Lévy processes

Let （Xt）t≥0 be a Lévy process taking values in R^d with absolutely continuous marginal distributions. Given a real measurable function f on R^d in Kato＇s class, we show that the empirical mean 1/t ∫ f（Xs）ds converges to a constant z in probability with an exponential rate if and only if f has a uniform mean z. This result improves a classical result of Kahane et al. and generalizes a similar result of L. Wu from the Brownian Motion to general Lévy processes.     

Hitting Times of Points and Intervals for Symmetric Lévy Processes

For one-dimensional symmetric Lévy processes, which hit every point with positive probability, we give sharp bounds for the tail function P ^x (T _B >t), where T _B is the first hitting time of B which is either a single point or an interval. The estimates are obtained under some weak type scaling assumptions on the characteristic exponent of the process. We apply these results to prove sharp two-sided estimates of the transition density of the process killed after hitting B.