New method simplifies analysis of exercise timing for ambiguous integral option contracts.
problem Impact of ambiguity on optimal exercise timing of integral option contracts.
method Parameterized family of excessive functions generating supermartingales, simplifying multidimensional problem to one-dimensional static optimization.
result Value of optimal policy and worst case measure expressed in terms of these processes.
Closed-form solution found for American put option boundary.
problem Finding the optimal exercise boundary for American put options.
method Three models of stock price dynamics with time-dependent parameters, leading to a closed-form solution for the exercise boundary.
result Explicit closed-form solution for the optimal exercise boundary of American put options.
We characterize the price of an Asian option, a financial contract, as a fixed-point of a non-linear operator. In recent years, there has been interest in incorporating changes of regime into the parameters describing the evolution of the underlying asset price, namely the interest rate and the volatility, to model sud…
This paper uses Monte Carlo simulation to value quality options in agricultural futures contracts.
problem Valuation of quality options in agricultural futures to prevent manipulation and improve hedging performance.
method Monte Carlo simulation with antithetic variables for efficiency.
result Demonstrates a method to estimate the value of quality options in agricultural futures contracts.
The Black-Scholes theory of option pricing has been considered for many years as an important but very approximate zeroth-order description of actual market behavior. We generalize the functional form of the diffusion of these systems and also consider multi-factor models including stochastic volatility. Daily Eurodoll…
Valuing FF contracts in time-dependent models
problem Valuing American options and Flexible Forwards contracts
method Recursive Riccati solution and Volterra equation
result FF contracts priced faster than traditional methods
In this paper we present a new methodology for option pricing. The main idea consists to represent a generic probability distribution function (PDF) via a perturbative expansion around a given, simpler, PDF (typically a gaussian function) by matching moments of increasing order. Because, as shown in literature, the pri…
Two new models improve option valuation for negative or mean reverting futures markets.
problem Valuation of futures contracts with negative underlying prices.
method Proposed two models: Ornstein-Uhlenbeck and continuous time GARCH.
result Improved option values compared to Black 76, especially for negative or mean reverting markets.
Combines option pricing and portfolio theory for optimal hedging.
problem Optimal hedging of European options in various price dynamics.
method Derives optimal holdings and unhedged risk for different price dynamics.
result Derives solutions for various price dynamics including binomial, diffusion, volatility, volatility-of-volatility, and jump diffusion.
The Heath-Jarrow-Morton (HJM) formulation of treasury bonds in terms of forward rates is recast as a problem in path integration. The HJM-model is generalized to the case where all the forward rates are allowed to fluctuate independently. The resulting theory is shown to be a two-dimensional Gaussian quantum field theo…
We introduce a class of financial contracts involving several parties by extending the notion of a two-person game option (see Kifer (2000)) to a contract in which an arbitrary number of parties is involved and each of them is allowed to make a wide array of decisions at any time, not restricted to simply `exercising t…
We develop a new method to price SOFR futures contracts considering convexity, skew, and smile.
problem Analyzing and pricing SOFR futures contracts with convexity, skew, and smile adjustments.
method A perturbative formalism based on a time-ordered exponential series to solve the backward-Kolmogorov diffusion PDE.
result An analytic pricing formula for SOFR futures contracts that incorporates convexity, skew, and smile adjustments.
Paper proposes machine learning for managing complex buyback contracts.
problem Managing complex buyback contracts, especially accelerated share repurchase.
method Proposes a machine learning method to optimally manage buyback contracts.
result Recovery of strategies similar to those obtained with partial differential equations and tree methods, but without the curse of dimensionality.
In this paper we propose a multi-state model for the evaluation of the conversion option contract. The multi-state model is based on age-indexed semi-Markov chains that are able to reproduce many important aspects that influence the valuation of the option such as the duration problem, the time non-homogeneity and the …
Study loan contracts in DLPs using derivatives pricing and neural networks.
problem Optimizing and hedging risks in decentralized lending contracts.
method Derivatives pricing theory, deep neural networks, and statistical arbitrage.
result Developed a method to hedge risks in lending contracts and exploit arbitrage opportunities.
Suppliers (including companies and individual prosumers) may wish to protect their private information when selling items they have in stock. A market is envisaged where private information can be protected through the use of differential privacy and option contracts, while privacy-aware suppliers deliver their stock a…
The paper presents an approximate formula for European mortgage options pricing.
problem Pricing European mortgage options with accuracy and efficiency.
method Approximation of the underlying price distribution using lognormal distributions and matching moments.
result The proposed formula provides a good approximation with high accuracy compared to Monte Carlo simulations.
Unified model integrates Bachelier and Black-Scholes-Merton for asset pricing.
problem Study of asset pricing in a natural world with negative prices or riskless rates.
method Unified framework combining Bachelier and Black-Scholes-Merton models.
result Unified model shows different option pricing depending on riskless instruments used.
The paper explores local-correlation models for pricing complex financial contracts.
problem Calibrating synthetic quanto forward contracts and composite options.
method Design on-line calibration procedures for local and stochastic volatility models.
result Calibration performance of local-correlation models compared to simpler approximations.
Model prices commodity futures and index options.
problem Deriving accurate prices for derivative contracts on commodity futures and indices.
method Stochastic local volatility model for commodity futures.
result Model accurately recovers prices of derivative claims.
Prediction markets and crypto options show persistent pricing gaps.
problem Comparing prediction markets and crypto options for identical payoffs.
method Comparing Polymarket Yes prices with Binance call option prices.
result Mean pricing gap of 5.6 percentage points across 214 hourly observations.
New method for non-arbitrage pricing in risky assets.
problem Non-arbitrage pricing in markets with non-negative risky assets.
method Constructing martingale measures and proving optional decomposition theorem.
result Deriving fair prices for European option contracts.
This paper investigates how the conditional quantiles of future returns and volatility of financial assets vary with various measures of ex-post variation in asset prices as well as option-implied volatility. We work in the flexible quantile regression framework and rely on recently developed model-free measures of int…
New approach minimizes tail risk in option hedging.
problem Minimizing tail risk in option hedging strategies.
method Risk-sensitive reinforcement learning without parametric models.
result Significantly lower tail risk and higher mean P&L than delta hedging.
Financial contracts with options that allow the holder to extend the contract maturity by paying an additional fixed amount found many applications in finance. Closed-form solutions for the price of these options have appeared in the literature for the case when the contract underlying asset follows a geometric Brownia…
Study pricing options on forward contracts using infinite-dimensional affine models.
problem Pricing European-style options on forward contracts in complex stochastic volatility models.
method Model forward price curves using stochastic partial differential equations modulated by stochastic volatility processes. Analyze two classes of affine stochastic volatility models: Gaussian and pure-jump. Derive conditions for existence of exponential moments and develop semi-closed pricing formulas.
result Developed semi-closed Fourier-based pricing formulas for vanilla call and put options in infinite-dimensional affine models.
Study evaluates cryptocurrency option pricing models, finds Kou and Bates models perform best.
problem High volatility and low liquidity in cryptocurrency futures contracts make traditional option pricing models unreliable.
method Calibrated and evaluated the performance of six option pricing models (Black-Scholes, Merton Jump Diffusion, Variance Gamma, Kou, Heston, and Bates) on BTC and ETH futures options.
result Kou and Bates models achieve the lowest pricing errors, with Kou outperforming Bates for BTC and ETH options respectively.
There is a vast literature on numerical valuation of exotic options using Monte Carlo, binomial and trinomial trees, and finite difference methods. When transition density of the underlying asset or its moments are known in closed form, it can be convenient and more efficient to utilize direct integration methods to ca…
Under the optimal withdrawal strategy of a policyholder, the pricing of variable annuities with Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB) is an optimal stochastic control problem. The surrender feature available in marketed products allows termination of the contract before maturity, making it also an optimal stoppi…
Paper introduces a new pricing method for electricity swaps and options.
problem Pricing electricity swaps and options in markets with varying delivery periods.
method Introduces a weighted geometric averaging of futures prices over delivery periods.
result Arbitrage-free pricing framework for derivatives in electricity markets.
Swing options on the gas market are american style option where daily quantities exercices are constrained and global quantities exerciced each year constrained too. The option holder has to decide each day how much he consumes of the quantities satisfying the constraints and tries to use a strategy in order to maximiz…
New method optimizes share buyback contracts without optimal control's limitations.
problem High-dimensional state spaces and risk penalty selection issues in traditional methods.
method Applies optimized heuristic strategies and classical pricing methods.
result Maximizes contract value and disentangles repurchase from hedging.
Unified pricing method for FX options with barriers.
problem Calculating the value and sensitivities of FX options with barriers.
method Unified Vanna-Volga pricing technique for single and double barrier FX options.
result Derivation of closed formulas for Delta, Vega, Vanna, and Volga.
Deep learning calibrates HJM forward curves for commodity options pricing.
problem Calibrating HJM forward curves for accurate option pricing in commodity markets.
method Introduced a neural network to approximate true option prices from model parameters, calibrated using observed option prices.
result Neural network calibration yields high accuracy in recovering option prices, even with model parameter approximation loss.
The paper compares machine learning methods with traditional techniques for pricing and sensitivities of financial products with path-dependent structures.
problem Evaluating financial products with early-termination clauses, especially those with path-dependent structures.
method The paper compares regression methods including randomized recurrent and feed-forward neural networks, and a novel approach using signatures of the underlying price process, with traditional polynomial basis functions for pricing and sensitivities.
result Machine learning algorithms often match the accuracy and efficiency of traditional methods for Asian and look-back options, while randomized neural networks are best for callable certificates.
In this paper we use Bernstein and Chebyshev polynomials to approximate the price of some basket options under a bivariate Black-Scholes model. The method consists in expanding the price of a univariate related contract after conditioning on the remaining underlying assets and calculating the mixed exponential-power mo…
Here we develop an option pricing method based on Legendre series expansion of the density function. The key insight, relying on the close relation of the characteristic function with the series coefficients, allows to recover the density function rapidly and accurately. Based on this representation for the density fun…
Traders and investors involved in an option contract having the underlying stock in range bound are likely to lose their initial investment. Timing in buying an option contract is of capital importance. In a recent article [1] the hypothesis of range bound market is used in conjunction to Black-Scholes equation to find…
We introduce a multi-factor stochastic volatility model based on the CIR/Heston stochastic volatility process. In order to capture the Samuelson effect displayed by commodity futures contracts, we add expiry-dependent exponential damping factors to their volatility coefficients. The pricing of single underlying Europea…
The paper models natural gas futures prices and volatility, using Monte Carlo and reinforcement learning.
problem Hedging and selecting delivery strategies in natural gas markets.
method Dynamical model for futures prices, least-square Monte Carlo simulation, reinforcement learning.
result Calibrated futures price quotes and implied volatility smiles for different delivery periods.
Designs a derivatives exchange to meet client needs and provide liquidity.
problem Addressing clients needs in listed options and providing suitable liquidity.
method Quantization method for selecting options and principal-agent approach for designing fees contract.
result Incentives provided to market maker to offer small spreads, attracting transactions.
Method uses trinomial trees to price nontraditional options.
problem Pricing of random-expiry options with early expiry.
method Developed a trinomial tree approach to interpret early expiry.
result The method is free of arbitrage and can be implemented efficiently.
Study geometric step options with jumps, deriving pricing equations and characterizations.
problem Pricing geometric step options in markets with jumps.
method Symmetry and parity relations, partial integro-differential equations, ordinary integro-differential equations.
result Derive semi-analytical pricing results for geometric step options.
Study of participating policies with guaranteed minimum interest rate and surrender option.
problem Analyzing the value and optimal surrender strategy of participating policies with minimum interest rate guarantee and surrender option.
method Probabilistic analysis using optimal stopping and free boundary theory.
result Identification of an optimal surrender strategy involving stop-loss and too-good-to-persist boundaries.
Path integral method calculates PDBS option prices with time-dependent parameters.
problem Pricing proportional double-barrier step options with time-dependent interest rates and volatilities.
method Path integral method applied to a quantum mechanical analogy of barrier options.
result Derivation of pricing kernel for PDBS options with time-dependent parameters.
Path integral method calculates barrier option prices.
problem Barrier option pricing in finance.
method Path integral method applied to trapezoid and square potential barriers.
result Analytical expressions for option pricing derived.
Retirement gratuity is the money companies typically pay their employees at the end of their contracts or at the time of leaving the company. It is a defined benefit plan and is often given as an alternative to a pension plan. In Botswana, there is now a new pattern whereby companies give their employees the option to …
In this paper we propose a closed-form approximation for the price of basket options under a multivariate Black-Scholes model, based on Taylor expansions and the calculation of mixed exponential-power moments of a Gaussian distribution. Our numerical results show that a second order expansion provides accurate prices o…