Application Of Stochastic Volatility Models In Option Pricing

Application of Stochastic Volatility Models in Option Pricing

Bachelorarbeit aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich BWL - Investition und Finanzierung, Note: 1,2, EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The Black-Scholes (or Black-Scholes-Merton) Model has become the standard model for the pricing of options and can surely be seen as one of the main reasons for the growth of the derivative market after the model ́s introduction in 1973. As a consequence, the inventors of the model, Robert Merton, Myron Scholes, and without doubt also Fischer Black, if he had not died in 1995, were awarded the Nobel prize for economics in 1997. The model, however, makes some strict assumptions that must hold true for accurate pricing of an option. The most important one is constant volatility, whereas empirical evidence shows that volatility is heteroscedastic. This leads to increased mispricing of options especially in the case of out of the money options as well as to a phenomenon known as volatility smile. As a consequence, researchers introduced various approaches to expand the model by allowing the volatility to be non-constant and to follow a sto-chastic process. It is the objective of this thesis to investigate if the pricing accuracy of the Black-Scholes model can be significantly improved by applying a stochastic volatility model.

Stochastic Volatility Models with Applications to Option Pricing

Exotic Option Pricing and Advanced Lévy Models

Since around the turn of the millennium there has been a general acceptance that one of the more practical improvements one may make in the light of the shortfalls of the classical Black-Scholes model is to replace the underlying source of randomness, a Brownian motion, by a Lévy process. Working with Lévy processes allows one to capture desirable distributional characteristics in the stock returns. In addition, recent work on Lévy processes has led to the understanding of many probabilistic and analytical properties, which make the processes attractive as mathematical tools. At the same time, exotic derivatives are gaining increasing importance as financial instruments and are traded nowadays in large quantities in OTC markets. The current volume is a compendium of chapters, each of which consists of discursive review and recent research on the topic of exotic option pricing and advanced Lévy markets, written by leading scientists in this field. In recent years, Lévy processes have leapt to the fore as a tractable mechanism for modeling asset returns. Exotic option values are especially sensitive to an accurate portrayal of these dynamics. This comprehensive volume provides a valuable service for financial researchers everywhere by assembling key contributions from the world's leading researchers in the field. Peter Carr, Head of Quantitative Finance, Bloomberg LP. This book provides a front-row seat to the hottest new field in modern finance: options pricing in turbulent markets. The old models have failed, as many a professional investor can sadly attest. So many of the brightest minds in mathematical finance across the globe are now in search of new, more accurate models. Here, in one volume, is a comprehensive selection of this cutting-edge research. Richard L. Hudson, former Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe, and co-author with Benoit B. Mandelbrot of The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward