Bounds for Asian basket options

In this paper we propose pricing bounds for European-style discrete arithmetic Asian basket options in a Black and Scholes framework. We start from methods used for basket options and Asian options. First, we use the general approach for deriving upper and lower bounds for stop-loss premia of sums of non-independent random variables as in Kaas et al. [Upper and lower bounds for sums of random variables, Insurance Math. Econom. 27 (2000) 151–168] or Dhaene et al. [The concept of comonotonicity in actuarial science and finance: theory, Insurance Math. Econom. 31(1) (2002) 3–33]. We generalize the methods in Deelstra et al. [Pricing of arithmetic basket options by conditioning, Insurance Math. Econom. 34 (2004) 55–57] and Vanmaele et al. [Bounds for the price of discrete sampled arithmetic Asian options, J. Comput. Appl. Math. 185(1) (2006) 51–90]. Afterwards we show how to derive an analytical closed-form expression for a lower bound in the non-comonotonic case. Finally, we derive upper bounds for Asian basket options by applying techniques as in Thompson [Fast narrow bounds on the value of Asian options, Working Paper, University of Cambridge, 1999] and Lord [Partially exact and bounded approximations for arithmetic Asian options, J. Comput. Finance 10 (2) (2006) 1–52]. Numerical results are included and on the basis of our numerical tests, we explain which method we recommend depending on moneyness and time-to-maturity.     

Pricing and hedging in the presence of extraneous risks

Given an underlying complete financial market, we study contingent claims whose payoffs may depend on the occurrence of nonmarket events. We first investigate the almost-sure hedging of such claims. In particular, we obtain new representations of the hedging prices and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a claim to be marketed. The analysis of various examples then leads us to investigate alternative pricing rules. We choose to embed the pricing problem into the agent’s portfolio decision and study reservation prices. We establish the existence and consistency of this pricing rule in a semimartingale model. We characterize the nonlinear dependence of the reservation price with respect to both the agent’s initial capital and the size of her position. The fair price arises as a limiting case.     

Pricing and hedging barrier options

European options are a significant financial product. Barrier options, in turn, are European options with a barrier constraint. The investor may pay less buying the barrier option obtaining the same result as that of the European option whenever the barrier is not breached. Otherwise, the option's payoff cancels. In this paper, we obtain closed‐form expressions of the exact no‐arbitrage prices, delta hedges, and gammas of a call option with a moving barrier that tracks the prices of the risk‐free asset. Besides the interest in its own right, this class of options constitutes the core element to obtain, via an original and simple technique, the closed‐form expressions for the estimates of the prices of call options with barriers of arbitrary shape. Equally important is the fact that a bound for the worst associated error is provided, so the investor can evaluate beforehand if the accuracy provided is according to his/her needs or not. Discrete monitored barrier provisions are also allowed in the estimates. Simulations are performed illustrating the accuracy of the estimates. A quality of the aforementioned procedures is that the time consumed in computations is very small. In turn, we observe that the approximate prices, delta hedges, and gammas of the barrier option associated to the risk‐free asset, obtained via a PDE approach in conjunction with a good finite difference method, converge to the closed‐form expressions of the prices, hedges, and gammas of the option. This attests the correctness of the analytical results.     

A general framework for pricing Asian options under stochastic volatility on parallel architectures

In this paper, we present a transform-based algorithm for pricing discretely monitored arithmetic Asian options with remarkable accuracy in a general stochastic volatility framework, including affine models and time-changed Lévy processes. The accuracy is justified both theoretically and experimentally. In addition, to speed up the valuation process, we employ high-performance computing technologies. More specifically, we develop a parallel option pricing system that can be easily reproduced on parallel computers, also realized as a cluster of personal computers. Numerical results showing the accuracy, speed and efficiency of the procedure are reported in the paper.     

Pricing and hedging of Asian options: quasi-explicit solutions via Malliavin calculus

We use Malliavin calculus and the Clark–Ocone formula to derive the hedging strategy of an arithmetic Asian Call option in general terms. Furthermore we derive an expression for the density of the integral over time of a geometric Brownian motion, which allows us to express hedging strategy and price of the Asian option as an analytic expression. Numerical computations which are based on this expression are provided.     

Tridiagonal implicit method to evaluate European and American options under infinite activity Lévy models

We propose an efficient implicit method to evaluate European and American options when the underlying asset follows an infinite activity Lévy model. Since the Lévy measure of the infinite activity model has the singularity at the origin, we approximate infinitely many small jumps by samples of a diffusion. The proposed methods to solve partial integro–differential equations for European options and linear complementarity problems for American options via an operator splitting method involve solving linear systems with tridiagonal matrices and so can significantly reduce the computations associated with the discrete integral operators. The numerical experiments verify that the proposed method has the second-order convergence rate under an infinite activity Lévy model.     

Pricing catastrophe options with counterparty credit risk in a reduced form model

In this paper, we study the price of catastrophe options with counterparty credit risk in a reduced form model. We assume that the loss process is generated by a doubly stochastic Poisson process, the share price process is modeled through a jump-diffusion process which is correlated to the loss process, the interest rate process and the default intensity process are modeled through the Vasicek model. We derive the closed form formulae for pricing catastrophe options in a reduced form model. Furthermore, we make some numerical analysis on the explicit formulae.     

Pricing basket default swaps in a tractable shot noise model

We value CDS spreads and kth-to-default swap spreads in a tractable shot noise model. The default dependence is modelled by letting the individual jumps of the default intensity be driven by a common latent factor. The arrival of the jumps is driven by a Poisson process. By using conditional independence and properties of the shot noise processes we derive tractable closed form expressions for the default distribution and the ordered survival distributions. These quantities are then used to price kth-to-default swap spreads. We calibrate a homogeneous version of the model to the term structure on market data from the iTraxx Europe index series sampled during the period 2008-01-14 to 2010-02-11. We perform 435 calibrations in this turbulent period and almost all calibrations yield very good fits. Finally we study kth-to-default spreads in the calibrated model.     

Moment matching approximation of Asian basket option prices

In this paper we propose some moment matching pricing methods for European-style discrete arithmetic Asian basket options in a Black & Scholes framework. We generalize the approach of [M. Curran, Valuing Asian and portfolio by conditioning on the geometric mean price, Management Science 40 (1994) 1705-1711] and of [G. Deelstra, J. Liinev, M. Vanmaele, Pricing of arithmetic basket options by conditioning, Insurance: Mathematics & Economics 34 (2004) 55-57] in several ways. We create a framework that allows for a whole class of conditioning random variables which are normally distributed. We moment match not only with a lognormal random variable but also with a log-extended-skew-normal random variable. We also improve the bounds of [G. Deelstra, I. Diallo, M. Vanmaele, Bounds for Asian basket options, Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 218 (2008) 215-228]. Numerical results are included and on the basis of our numerical tests, we explain which method we recommend depending on moneyness and time-to-maturity.     

Pricing of American lookback spread options

We find the closed form formula for the price of the perpetual American lookback spread option, whose payoff is the difference of the running maximum and minimum prices of a single asset. We solve an optimal stopping problem related to both maximum and minimum. We show that the spread option is equivalent to some fixed strike options on some domains, find the exact form of the optimal stopping region, and obtain the solution of the resulting partial differential equations. The value function is not differentiable. However, we prove the verification theorem due to the monotonicity of the maximum and minimum processes.     

Approximate basket options valuation for a jump-diffusion model

In this paper we discuss the approximate basket options valuation for a jump-diffusion model. The underlying asset prices follow some correlated diffusion processes with idiosyncratic and systematic jumps. We suggest a new approximate pricing formula which is the weighted sum of Roger and Shi’s lower bound and the conditional second moment adjustments. We show that the approximate value is always within the lower and upper bounds of the option and is very sharp in our numerical tests.     

An adaptive extrapolation discontinuous Galerkin method for the valuation of Asian options

We consider the approximation of the optimal stopping problem associated with ultradiffusion processes in the context of mathematical finance and the valuation of Asian options. In particular, the value function is characterized as the solution of an ultraparabolic variational inequality. Employing the penalty method and a regularization of the state space, we develop higher-order adaptive approximation schemes which utilize the extrapolation discontinuous Galerkin method in temporal space. Numerical examples are provided in order to demonstrate the approach.     

Pricing catastrophe options in discrete operational time

We employ a doubly-binomial process as in Gerber [Gerber, H.U., 1988. Mathematical fun with the compound binomial process. ASTIN Bull. 18, 161-168] to discretize and generalize the continuous “randomized operational time” model of Chang et al. ([Chang, C.W., Chang, J.S.K., Yu, M.T., 1996. Pricing catastrophe insurance futures call spreads: A randomized operational time approach. J. Risk Insurance 63, 599-616] and CCY hereafter) from a complete-market continuous-time setting to an incomplete-market discrete-time setting, so as to price a richer set of catastrophe (CAT) options. For futures options, we derive the equivalent martingale probability measures by benchmarking to the shadow price of a bond to span arrival uncertainty, and the underlying futures price to span price uncertainty. With a time change from calendar time to the operational transaction-time dimension, we derive CCY as a limiting case under risk-neutrality when both calendar-time and transaction-time intervals shrink to zero. For a cash option with non-traded underlying loss index, we benchmark to the market reinsurance premiums to span claim uncertainty, and with a time change to claim time, we derive the cash option price as a binomial sum of claim-time binomial Asian option prices under the martingale measures.     

Closed-form valuations of basket options using a multivariate normal inverse Gaussian model

This paper uses a multivariate normal inverse Gaussian model to develop closed-form pricing formulas for both geometric and arithmetic basket options. For geometric basket options, an exact analytical solution is possible; for arithmetic basket options, the formula is an approximation. The model is based on a jump-driven financial process, which is known empirically to be more realistic than a geometric Brownian motion. By comparing our results to Monte Carlo experiments, we confirm the internal consistency of our formulas. The “Greeks” can be derived from the closed-form formulas in a straightforward manner.     

Regularity of the American Put option in the Black–Scholes model with general discrete dividends

We analyze the regularity of the value function and of the optimal exercise boundary of the American Put option when the underlying asset pays a discrete dividend at known times during the lifetime of the option. The ex-dividend asset price process is assumed to follow the Black–Scholes dynamics and the dividend amount is a deterministic function of the ex-dividend asset price just before the dividend date. This function is assumed to be non-negative, non-decreasing and with growth rate not greater than 1. We prove that the exercise boundary is continuous and that the smooth contact property holds for the value function at any time but the dividend dates. We thus extend and generalize the results obtained in Jourdain and Vellekoop (2011) [10] when the dividend function is also positive and concave. Lastly, we give conditions on the dividend function ensuring that the exercise boundary is locally monotonic in a neighborhood of the corresponding dividend date.     

Accurate closed‐form approximation for pricing Asian and basket options

By approximating the distribution of the sum of correlated lognormals with some log‐extended‐skew‐normal distribution, we present closed‐form approximation formulae for pricing both Asian and basket options. Numerical comparison shows that our formulae provide both computational simplicity and accuracy. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymptotic analysis of hedging errors in models with jumps

Most authors who studied the problem of option hedging in incomplete markets, and, in particular, in models with jumps, focused on finding the strategies that minimize the residual hedging error. However, the resulting strategies are usually unrealistic because they require a continuously rebalanced portfolio, which is impossible to achieve in practice due to transaction costs. In reality, the portfolios are rebalanced discretely, which leads to a ‘hedging error of the second type’, due to the difference between the optimal portfolio and its discretely rebalanced version. In this paper, we analyze this second hedging error and establish a limit theorem for the renormalized error, when the discretization step tends to zero, in the framework of general Itô processes with jumps. The results are applied to the problem of hedging an option with a discontinuous pay-off in a jump-diffusion model.     

The uncertain mortality intensity framework: Pricing and hedging unit-linked life insurance contracts

We study the valuation and hedging of unit-linked life insurance contracts in a setting where mortality intensity is governed by a stochastic process. We focus on model risk arising from different specifications for the mortality intensity. To do so we assume that the mortality intensity is almost surely bounded under the statistical measure. Further, we restrict the equivalent martingale measures and apply the same bounds to the mortality intensity under these measures. For this setting we derive upper and lower price bounds for unit-linked life insurance contracts using stochastic control techniques. We also show that the induced hedging strategies indeed produce a dynamic superhedge and subhedge under the statistical measure in the limit when the number of contracts increases. This justifies the bounds for the mortality intensity under the pricing measures. We provide numerical examples investigating fixed-term, endowment insurance contracts and their combinations including various guarantee features. The pricing partial differential equation for the upper and lower price bounds is solved by finite difference methods. For our contracts and choice of parameters the pricing and hedging is fairly robust with respect to misspecification of the mortality intensity. The model risk resulting from the uncertain mortality intensity is of minor importance.