On pricing options with stressed-beta in a reduced form model

In this article, futures and commodity options are analyzed in the context of Merton's (1987) model of capital market equilibrium with incomplete information. First, following Dusak (1973) and Black (1976), the conditions under which Merton's model can be applied to the valuation of forward and futures contracts are proposed. Then an application to futures markets is given. We provide a partial differential equation and the formulas for European commodity options, futures contracts, and American options in the same context. The models are simulated and compared to standard models with no information costs. We find that model prices are not significantly different from standard model prices. However, our models correct for some pricing biases in standard models. In particular, they reduce the overvaluation bias for European and American commodity options. It seems that the costs of gathering and processing information regarding the option and its underlying asset play a role in explaining the biases observed in standard models. This work can be applied to other futures markets. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 19: 645–664, 1999

Equity-indexed annuities (EIAs) provide investors with a minimum rate of return and at the same time the opportunity of gaining a profit that is linked to the performance of an equity index. These properties make EIAs a popular product in the market. For modeling the equity index process and calculating the price of EIAs, as the maturity of EIAs usually is long, it is more reasonable to assume that the interest rate and the volatility of the equity index are stochastic processes. One simple way is to apply the regime-switching model, which allows these parameters depending on the market situation. However, the valuation of derivatives in such models is challenging, especially for the strong path-dependent options such as Asian options. A trinomial tree model is introduced to provide an efficient way to solve this problem. The valuation of Asian options is studied and extended to Asian-option-related EIAs.

Multiscale stochastic elasticity of variance for options and equity linked annuity; A Mellin transform approach

The analytical pricing formula of vulnerable barrier option when the underlying asset and counterparty asset follows a geometric mixed fractional Brownian motion, with Hurst parameter H∈(0,1), is considered. The derivation of the close-form pricing formula of the vulnerable barrier option is described in detail.

In this article, the authors reexamine the American‐style option pricing formula of R. Geske and H.E. Johnson (1984), and extend the analysis by deriving a modified formula that can overcome the possibility of nonuniform convergence (which is likely to occur for nonstandard American options whose exercise boundary is discontinuous) encountered in the original Geske–Johnson methodology. Furthermore, they propose a numerical method, the Repeated‐Richardson extrapolation, which allows the estimation of the interval of true option values and the determination of the number of options needed for an approximation to achieve a given desired accuracy. Using simulation results, our modified Geske–Johnson formula is shown to be more accurate than the original Geske–Johnson formula for pricing American options, especially for nonstandard American options. This study also illustrates that the Repeated‐Richardson extrapolation approach can estimate the interval of true American option values extremely well. Finally, the authors investigate the possibility of combining the binomial Black–Scholes method proposed by M. Broadie and J.B. Detemple (1996) with the Repeated‐Richardson extrapolation technique. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:791–817, 2007

We study the problem of hedging early exercise (American) options with respect to exponential utility within a general incomplete market model. This leads us to construct a duality formula involving relative entropy minimization and optimal stopping. We further consider claims with multiple exercises, and static-dynamic hedges of American claims with other European and American options. The problem is important for accurate valuation of employee stock options (ESOs), and we demonstrate this in a standard diffusion model. We find that incorporating static hedges with market-traded options induces the holder to delay exercises and increases the ESO cost to the firm.

We consider a general option pricing framework incorporating the double Heston stochastic volatility, stochastic interest rate, jumps and Markov regime switching. Under the proposed framework, we derive the analytical pricing formulae for European options using Fourier transform technique. Numerical examples illustrate that the option prices and the implied volatility curves under different regimes vary clearly, and the effects of regime-switching and jumps on the option price differ.

Are There Critical Levels of Stochastic Volatility for Early Option Exercise?

Counterparty Credit Risk and American Options

An analytic pricing formula for lookback options under stochastic volatility

Proposed by Chan, Li, and Li, parametric mortality indexes (i.e., indexes created using the time-varying parameters in a suitable stochastic mortality model) can be used to develop tradable mortality-linked derivatives such as K-forwards. Compared to existing indexes such as the Life and Longevity Markets Association’s LifeMetrics, parametric mortality indexes are richer in information content, allowing the market to better concentrate liquidity. In this article, we further study this concept in several aspects. First, we consider options written on parametric mortality indexes. Such options enable hedgers to create out-of-the-money longevity hedges, which, compared to at-the-money-hedges created with q-/K-forwards, may better meet hedgers’ needs for protection against downside risk. Second, using the properties of the time series processes for the parametric mortality indexes, we derive analytical risk-neutral pricing formulas for K-forwards and options. In addition to convenience, the analytical pricing formulas remove the need for computationally intensive nested simulations that are entailed in, for example, the calculation of the hedging instruments’ values when a dynamic hedge is adjusted. Finally, we construct static and dynamic Greek hedging strategies using K-forwards and options, and demonstrate empirically the conditions under which an out-of-the-money hedge is more economically justifiable than an at-the-money one.

(2010). “Pricing Asian Options and Equity-Indexed Annuities with Regime Switching by the Trinomial Tree Method”, Fei Lung Yuen and Hailiang Yang, April, 2010. North American Actuarial Journal: Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 272-277.

A floating-strike lookback call option gives the holder the right to buy at the lowest price of the underlying asset. Similarly, a floating-strike lookback put option gives the holder the right to sell at the highest price. This paper will propose an outside floating-strike lookback call (or put) option that gives the holder the right to buy (or sell) one underlying asset at some percentage of the lowest (or highest) price of the other underlying asset. In addition, this paper will derive explicit pricing formulas for these outside floating-strike lookback options. Sections 3 and 4 assume that the underlying assets pay no dividends. In contrast, Section 5 will derive explicit pricing formulas for these options when their underlying assets pay dividends continuously at a rate proportional to their prices. Some numerical examples will be discussed.

This paper obtains an analytic pricing formula for vulnerable European options. This formula allows the option writer to default at any time during the life of the option, and the recovery value of the option in default to be an amount equal to the writerfs asset-to-debt ratio multiplied by the economic equivalent of the option right, rather than its default-free value. Numerical results indicate that the economic equivalent of the option right, assumed as its default-free value, is inappropriate, and a default, restricted to occur only at the exercise date, seriously understates the impact of credit risk on option prices. Key words: vulnerable option, option pricing, credit risk

This study demonstrates the efficiency of an adaptive mesh relocation refinement (AMrR) to Kim's (1990) American options pricing method. Given the suboptimal uniform time discretisation proposed by Kim, we test an r-adaptive strategy that controls the overall error using an adjoint objective function. Next, we build an a posteriori goal-oriented error estimator as a measure of the global error incurred by the time mesh used. The analytics show the AMrR with n = 30 time steps improves upon Kim's (1990) method root mean squared relative error (RMSRE) by 85.74% for short and by 73.70% for long-term American options. Furthermore, we use the AMrR to obtain tighter upper bounds for the option's theoretical value, built directly from Broadie and Detemple (1996) and Chung et al. (2010) upper bound methods. In respect to both studies, we find substantial improvements in the RMSRE for both short and long American options.