Differential quadrature method for pricing American options

In this article, differential quadrature method (DQM), a highly accurate and efficient numerical method for solving nonlinear problems, is used to overcome the difficulty in determining the optimal exercise boundary of American option. The following three parts of the problem in pricing American options are solved. The first part is how to treat the uncertainty of the early exercise boundary, or free boundary in the language of the PDE treatment of the American option, because American options can be exercised before the date of expiration. The second part is how to solve the nonlinear problem, because the problem of pricing American options is nonlinear. And the third part is how to treat the initial value condition with the singularity and the boundary conditions in the DQM. Numerical results for the free boundary of American option obtained by both DQM and finite difference method (FDM) are given and from which it can be seen the computational efficiency is greatly improved by DQM. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 711–725, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/num.10028.     

Weak Galerkin finite element method for valuation of American options

We introduce a weak Galerkin finite element method for the valuation of American options governed by the Black-Scholes equation. In order to implement, we need to solve the optimal exercise boundary and then introduce an artificial boundary to make the computational domain bounded. For the optimal exercise boundary, which satisfies a nonlinear Volterra integral equation, it is resolved by a higher-order collocation method based on graded meshes. With the computed optimal exercise boundary, the front-fixing technique is employed to transform the free boundary problem to a one- dimensional parabolic problem in a half infinite area. For the other spatial domain boundary, a perfectly matched layer is used to truncate the unbounded domain and carry out the computation. Finally, the resulting initial-boundary value problems are solved by weak Galerkin finite element method, and numerical examples are provided to illustrate the efficiency of the method.     

American Call Options Under Jump‐Diffusion Processes – A Fourier Transform Approach

We consider the American option pricing problem in the case where the underlying asset follows a jump‐diffusion process. We apply the method of Jamshidian to transform the problem of solving a homogeneous integro‐partial differential equation (IPDE) on a region restricted by the early exercise (free) boundary to that of solving an inhomogeneous IPDE on an unrestricted region. We apply the Fourier transform technique to this inhomogeneous IPDE in the case of a call option on a dividend paying underlying to obtain the solution in the form of a pair of linked integral equations for the free boundary and the option price. We also derive new results concerning the limit for the free boundary at expiry. Finally, we present a numerical algorithm for the solution of the linked integral equation system for the American call price, its delta and the early exercise boundary. We use the numerical results to quantify the impact of jumps on American call prices and the early exercise boundary.     

Laplace transforms and American options

Laplace transform methods are used to study the valuation of American call and put options with constant dividend yield, and to derive integral equations giving the location of the optimal exercise boundary. In each case studied, the main result of this paper is a nonlinear Fredholm-type integral equation for the location of the free boundary. The equations differ depending on whether the dividend yield is less than or exceeds the risk-free rate. These integral equations contain a transform variable, so the solution of the equations would involve finding the free boundary that satisfies the equations for all values of this transform variable. Expressions are also given for the transform of the value of the option in terms of this free boundary.     

Exercisability Randomization of the American Option

Abstract

The valuation of American options is an optimal stopping time problem which typically leads to a free boundary problem. We introduce here the randomization of the exercisability of the option. This method considerably simplifies the problematic by transforming the free boundary problem into an evolution equation. This evolution equation can be transformed in a way that decomposes the value of the randomized option into a European option and the present value of continuously paid benefits. This yields a new binomial approximation for American options. We prove that the method is accurate and numerical results illustrate that it is computationally efficient.     

The American Foreign Exchange Option in Time-Dependent One-Dimensional Diffusion Model for Exchange Rate

The classical Garman-Kohlhagen model for the currency exchange assumes that the domestic and foreign currency risk-free interest rates are constant and the exchange rate follows a log-normal diffusion process. In this paper we consider the general case, when exchange rate evolves according to arbitrary one-dimensional diffusion process with local volatility that is the function of time and the current exchange rate and where the domestic and foreign currency risk-free interest rates may be arbitrary continuous functions of time. First non-trivial problem we encounter in time-dependent case is the continuity in time argument of the value function of the American put option and the regularity properties of the optimal exercise boundary. We establish these properties based on systematic use of the monotonicity in volatility for the value functions of the American as well as European options with convex payoffs together with the Dynamic Programming Principle and we obtain certain type of comparison result for the value functions and corresponding exercise boundaries for the American puts with different strikes, maturities and volatilities. Starting from the latter fact that the optimal exercise boundary curve is left continuous with right-hand limits we give a mathematically rigorous and transparent derivation of the significant early exercise premium representation for the value function of the American foreign exchange put option as the sum of the European put option value function and the early exercise premium. The proof essentially relies on the particular property of the stochastic integral with respect to arbitrary continuous semimartingale over the predictable subsets of its zeros. We derive from the latter the nonlinear integral equation for the optimal exercise boundary which can be studied by numerical methods.     

A NUMERICAL METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL EXERCISE PRICE TO AMERICAN OPTIONS

American Options can be exercised prior to the date of expiration,the valuation of American options then constitutes a free boundary value problem.How to determine the free boundary,i.e. the optimal exercise price,is a key problem.In this paper,a nonlinear equation is given.The free boundary can be obtained by solving the nonlinear equation and the numerical results are better.     

Compact finite difference method for American option pricing

A compact finite difference method is designed to obtain quick and accurate solutions to partial differential equation problems. The problem of pricing an American option can be cast as a partial differential equation. Using the compact finite difference method this problem can be recast as an ordinary differential equation initial value problem. The complicating factor for American options is the existence of an optimal exercise boundary which is jointly determined with the value of the option. In this article we develop three ways of combining compact finite difference methods for American option price on a single asset with methods for dealing with this optimal exercise boundary. Compact finite difference method one uses the implicit condition that solutions of the transformed partial differential equation be nonnegative to detect the optimal exercise value. This method is very fast and accurate even when the spatial step size h   is large (h?0.1)$(h?0.1)$. Compact difference method two must solve an algebraic nonlinear equation obtained by Pantazopoulos (1998) at every time step. This method can obtain second order accuracy for space x and requires a moderate amount of time comparable with that required by the Crank Nicolson projected successive over relaxation method. Compact finite difference method three refines the free boundary value by a method developed by Barone-Adesi and Lugano [The saga of the American put, 2003], and this method can obtain high accuracy for space x. The last two of these three methods are convergent, moreover all the three methods work for both short term and long term options. Through comparison with existing popular methods by numerical experiments, our work shows that compact finite difference methods provide an exciting new tool for American option pricing.     

A simple approximation formula for calculating the optimal exercise boundary of American puts

In this paper, a simple algorithm to improve the computational accuracy of the analytical approximation for the value of American put options and their optimal exercise boundary proposed by Zhu (Int. J. Theor. Appl. Finance 9(7):1141–1177, 2006) is presented. In the current approach, Zhu’s simple approximation formula is used as an initial guess for the optimal exercise boundary of American put options. The determination of an improved optimal exercise boundary is then achieved by setting a null value of the Theta of option on the optimal exercise boundary. Numerical test results show that the improvement in accuracy is indeed significant in determining the optimal exercise boundary.     

Optimal stopping, free boundary, and American option in a jump-diffusion model

This paper considers the American put option valuation in a jump-diffusion model and relates this optimal-stopping problem to a parabolic integro-differential free-boundary problem, with special attention to the behavior of the optimal-stopping boundary. We study the regularity of the American option value and obtain in particular a decomposition of the American put option price as the sum of its counterpart European price and the early exercise premium. Compared with the Black-Scholes (BS) [5] model, this premium has an additional term due to the presence of jumps. We prove the continuity of the free boundary and also give one estimate near maturity, generalizing a recent result of Barleset al. [3] for the BS model. Finally, we study the effect of the market price of jump risk and the intensity of jumps on the American put option price and its critical stock price.     

On the behaviour near expiry for multi-dimensional American options

In this paper we analyse the behaviour, near expiry, of the free boundary appearing in the pricing of multi-dimensional American options in a financial market driven by a general multi-dimensional Ito diffusion. In particular, we prove regularity for the pricing function up to the terminal state and we establish a sufficient criteria for the conclusion that the optimal exercise boundary approaches the terminal state faster than parabolically.     

On modified Mellin transforms, Gauss-Laguerre quadrature, and the valuation of American call options

We extend a framework based on Mellin transforms and show how to modify the approach to value American call options on dividend-paying stocks. We present a new integral equation to determine the price of an American call option and its free boundary using modified Mellin transforms. We also show how to derive the pricing formula for perpetual American call options using the new framework. A result due to Kim (1990) [24] regarding the optimal exercise price at expiry is also recovered. Finally, we apply Gauss-Laguerre quadrature for the purpose of an efficient and accurate numerical valuation.     

The British Put Option

Abstract

We present a new put option where the holder enjoys the early exercise feature of American options whereupon his payoff (deliverable immediately) is the ‘best prediction’ of the European payoff under the hypothesis that the true drift of the stock price equals a contract drift. Inherent in this is a protection feature which is key to the British put option. Should the option holder believe the true drift of the stock price to be unfavourable (based upon the observed price movements) he can substitute the true drift with the contract drift and minimize his losses. The practical implications of this protection feature are most remarkable as not only can the option holder exercise at or above the strike price to a substantial reimbursement of the original option price (covering the ability to sell in a liquid option market completely endogenously) but also when the stock price movements are favourable he will generally receive higher returns at a lesser price. We derive a closed form expression for the arbitrage-free price in terms of the rational exercise boundary and show that the rational exercise boundary itself can be characterized as the unique solution to a nonlinear integral equation. Using these results we perform a financial analysis of the British put option that leads to the conclusions above and shows that with the contract drift properly selected the British put option becomes a very attractive alternative to the classic American put.     

Spectral Method for the Black-Scholes Model of American Options Valuation

In this paper, we devote ourselves to the research of numerical methods for American option pricing problems under the Black-Scholes model. The optimal exercise boundary which satisfies a nonlinear Volterra integral equation is resolved by a high-order collocation method based on graded meshes. For the other spatial domain boundary, an artificial boundary condition is applied to the pricing problem for the effective truncation of the semi-infinite domain. Then, the front-fixing and stretching transformations are employed to change the truncated problem in an irregular domain into a one-dimensional parabolic problem in [−1,1]. The Chebyshev spectral method coupled with fourth-order Runge-Kutta method is proposed for the resulting parabolic problem related to the options. The stability of the semi-discrete numerical method is established for the parabolic problem transformed from the original model. Numerical experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed methods and compare them with some existing methods.     

A Note on a Moving Boundary Problem Arising in the American Put Option

We consider an American put option, under the Black–Scholes model. This corresponds to a moving boundary problem for a PDE. We convert the problem to a nonlinear integral equation for the moving boundary, which corresponds to the optimal exercise of the option. We use singular perturbation methods to compute the moving boundary, as well as the full solution to the PDE, in various asymptotic limits. We consider times close to the expiration date, as well as systems where the interest rate is large or small, relative to the volatility of the asset for which the option is sold.     

An integral representation approach for valuing American-style installment options with continuous payment plan

In this paper, we present an integral equation approach for the valuation of American-style installment derivatives when the payment plan is assumed to be a continuous function of the asset price and time. The contribution of this study is threefold. First, we show that in the Black-Scholes model the option pricing problem can be formulated as a free boundary problem under very general conditions on payoff structure and payment schedule. Second, by applying a Fourier transform-based solution technique, we derive a system of coupled recursive integral equations for the pair of free boundaries along with an analytic representation of the option price. Third, based on these results, we propose a unified framework which generalizes the existing methods and is capable of dealing with a wide range of monotonic payoff functions and continuous payment plans. Finally, by using the illustrative example of American vanilla installment call options, an explicit pricing formula is obtained for time-varying payment schedules.     

美式期权自由边界的计算方法

美式期权的自由边界问题在金融工程文献中已经引起了广泛的关注,然而,它的数值计算方法一直是一个难点.基于差分技巧,给出了满足具有有限到期日的美式期权自由边界的两种计算方法,即,根据股票期权价格和相应的偏导数来确定自由边界条件.数值结果表明了上述两种方法下自由边界是一致性的.此外研究结果对自由边界的计算提供很好的科学依据.     

Front-fixing FEMs for the pricing of American options based on a PML technique

In this paper, efficient numerical methods are developed for the pricing of American options governed by the Black–Scholes equation. The front-fixing technique is first employed to transform the free boundary of optimal exercise prices to some a priori known temporal line for a one-dimensional parabolic problem via the change of variables. The perfectly matched layer (PML) technique is then applied to the pricing problem for the effective truncation of the semi-infinite domain. Finite element methods using the respective continuous and discontinuous Galerkin discretization are proposed for the resulting truncated PML problems related to the options and Greeks. The free boundary is determined by Newton’s method coupled with the discrete truncated PML problem. Stability and nonnegativeness are established for the approximate solution to the truncated PML problem. Under some weak assumptions on the PML medium parameters, it is also proved that the solution of the truncated PML problem converges to that of the unbounded Black–Scholes equation in the computational domain and decays exponentially in the perfectly matched layer. Numerical experiments are conducted to test the performance of the proposed methods and to compare them with some existing methods.     

A fast high-order finite difference algorithm for pricing American options

We describe an improvement of Han and Wu’s algorithm [H. Han, X.Wu, A fast numerical method for the Black–Scholes equation of American options, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 41 (6) (2003) 2081–2095] for American options. A high-order optimal compact scheme is used to discretise the transformed Black–Scholes PDE under a singularity separating framework. A more accurate free boundary location based on the smooth pasting condition and the use of a non-uniform grid with a modified tridiagonal solver lead to an efficient implementation of the free boundary value problem. Extensive numerical experiments show that the new finite difference algorithm converges rapidly and numerical solutions with good accuracy are obtained. Comparisons with some recently proposed methods for the American options problem are carried out to show the advantage of our numerical method.     

Further calculations for Israeli options

Recently Kifer introduced the concept of an Israeli (or Game) option. That is a general American-type option with the added possibility that the writer may terminate the contract early inducing a payment not less than the holder's claim had they exercised at that moment. Kifer shows that pricing and hedging of these options reduces to evaluating a stochastic saddle point problem associated with Dynkin games. Kyprianou, A.E. (2004) "Some calculations for Israeli options", Fin. Stoch. 8, 73-86 gives two examples of perpetual Israeli options where the value function and optimal strategies may be calculated explicity. In this article, we give a third example of a perpetual Israeli option where the contingent claim is based on the integral of the price process. This time the value function is shown to be the unique solution to a (two sided) free boundary value problem on (0, ∞) which is solved by taking an appropriately rescaled linear combination of Kummer functions. The probabilistic methods we appeal to in this paper centre around the interaction between the analytic boundary conditions in the free boundary problem, Itô's formula with local time and the martingale, supermartingle and submartingale properties associated with the solution to the stochastic saddle point problem.