This paper presents a novel one-factor stochastic volatility model where the instantaneous volatility of the asset log-return is a diffusion with a quadratic drift and a linear dispersion function. The instantaneous volatility mean reverts around a constant level, with a speed of mean reversion that is affine in the instantaneous volatility level. The steady-state distribution of the instantaneous volatility belongs to the class of Generalized Inverse Gaussian distributions. We show that the quadratic term in the drift is crucial to avoid moment explosions and to preserve the martingale property of the stock price process. Using a conveniently chosen change of measure, we relate the model to the class of polynomial diffusions. This remarkable relation allows us to develop a highly accurate option price approximation technique based on orthogonal polynomial expansions.
We examine in this article the pricing of target volatility options in the lognormal fractional SABR model. A decomposition formula by Ito's calculus yields a theoretical replicating strategy for the target volatility option, assuming the accessibilities of all variance swaps and swaptions. The same formula also suggests an approximation formula for the price of target volatility option in small time by the technique of freezing the coefficient. Alternatively, we also derive closed formed expressions for a small volatility of volatility expansion of the price of target volatility option. Numer…
In this paper we apply Markovian approximation of the fractional Brownian motion (BM), known as the Dobric-Ojeda (DO) process, to the fractional stochastic volatility model where the instantaneous variance is modelled by a lognormal process with drift and fractional diffusion. Since the DO process is a semi-martingale, it can be represented as an \Ito diffusion. It turns out that in this framework the process for the spot price $S_t$ is a geometric BM with stochastic instantaneous volatility $σ_t$, the process for $σ_t$ is also a geometric BM with stochastic speed of mean reversion and time-de…
This paper presents how to apply the stochastic collocation technique to assets that can not move below a boundary. It shows that the polynomial collocation towards a lognormal distribution does not work well. Then, the potentials issues of the related collocated local volatility model (CLV) are explored. Finally, a simple analytical expression for the Dupire local volatility derived from the option prices modelled by stochastic collocation is given.
Optimal liquidation of an asset with unknown constant drift and stochastic regime-switching volatility is studied. The uncertainty about the drift is represented by an arbitrary probability distribution; the stochastic volatility is modelled by $m$-state Markov chain. Using filtering theory, an equivalent reformulation of the original problem as a four-dimensional optimal stopping problem is found and then analysed by constructing approximating sequences of three-dimensional optimal stopping problems. An optimal liquidation strategy and various structural properties of the problem are determin…
We give explicit solutions for utility maximization of terminal wealth problem $u(X_T)$ in the presence of Knightian uncertainty in continuous time $[0,T]$ in a complete market. We assume there is uncertainty on both drift and volatility of the underlying stocks, which induce nonequivalent measures on canonical space of continuous paths $Ø$. We take that the uncertainty set resides in compact sets that are time dependent. In this framework, we solve the robust optimization problem with logarithmic, power and exponential utility functions, explicitly.
We undertake a systematic comparison between implied volatility, as represented by VIX (new methodology) and VXO (old methodology), and realized volatility. We compare visually and statistically distributions of realized and implied variance (volatility squared) and study the distribution of their ratio. We find that the ratio is best fitted by heavy-tailed -- lognormal and fat-tailed (power-law) -- distributions, depending on whether preceding or concurrent month of realized variance is used. We do not find substantial difference in accuracy between VIX and VXO. Additionally, we study the var…
In this paper, we study term structure movements in the spirit of Heath, Jarrow, and Morton [Econometrica 60(1), 77-105] under volatility uncertainty. We model the instantaneous forward rate as a diffusion process driven by a G-Brownian motion. The G-Brownian motion represents the uncertainty about the volatility. Within this framework, we derive a sufficient condition for the absence of arbitrage, known as the drift condition. In contrast to the traditional model, the drift condition consists of several equations and several market prices, termed market price of risk and market prices of unce…
We study robust notions of good-deal hedging and valuation under combined uncertainty about the drifts and volatilities of asset prices. Good-deal bounds are determined by a subset of risk-neutral pricing measures such that not only opportunities for arbitrage are excluded but also deals that are too good, by restricting instantaneous Sharpe ratios. A non-dominated multiple priors approach to model uncertainty (ambiguity) leads to worst-case good-deal bounds. Corresponding hedging strategies arise as minimizers of a suitable coherent risk measure. Good-deal bounds and hedges for measurable cla…
We derive generalizations of Dupire formula to the cases of general stochastic drift and/or stochastic local volatility. First, we handle a case in which the drift is given as difference of two stochastic short rates. Such a setting is natural in foreign exchange context where the short rates correspond to the short rates of the two currencies, equity single-currency context with stochastic dividend yield, or commodity context with stochastic convenience yield. We present the formula both in a call surface formulation as well as total implied variance formulation where the latter avoids calend…
It is generally understood that a given one-dimensional diffusion may be transformed by Cameron-Martin-Girsanov measure change into another one-dimensional diffusion with the same volatility but a different drift. But to achieve this we have to know that the change-of-measure local martingale that we write down is a true martingale; we provide a complete characterization of when this happens. This is then used to discuss absence of arbitrage in a generalized Heston model including the case where the Feller condition for the volatility process is violated.
In the classical model of stock prices which is assumed to be Geometric Brownian motion, the drift and the volatility of the prices are held constant. However, in reality, the volatility does vary. In quantitative finance, the Heston model has been successfully used where the volatility is expressed as a stochastic differential equation. In addition, we consider a regime switching model where the stock volatility dynamics depends on an underlying process which is possibly a non-Markov pure jump process. Under this model assumption, we find the locally risk minimizing pricing of European type v…
Empirical evidence suggests that fixed income markets exhibit unspanned stochastic volatility (USV), that is, that one cannot fully hedge volatility risk solely using a portfolio of bonds. While [1] showed that no two-factor Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (CIR) model can exhibit USV, it has been unknown to date whether CIR models with more than two factors can exhibit USV or not. We formally review USV and relate it to bond market incompleteness. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a multi-factor CIR model to exhibit USV. We then construct a class of three-factor CIR models that exhibit USV…
We study a problem of finding an optimal stopping strategy to liquidate an asset with unknown drift. Taking a Bayesian approach, we model the initial beliefs of an individual about the drift parameter by allowing an arbitrary probability distribution to characterise the uncertainty about the drift parameter. Filtering theory is used to describe the evolution of the posterior beliefs about the drift once the price process is being observed. An optimal stopping time is determined as the first passage time of the posterior mean below a monotone boundary, which can be characterised as the unique s…
To convert standard Brownian motion $Z$ into a positive process, Geometric Brownian motion (GBM) $e^{βZ_t}, β>0$ is widely used. We generalize this positive process by introducing an asymmetry parameter $ α\geq 0$ which describes the instantaneous volatility whenever the process reaches a new low. For our new process, $β$ is the instantaneous volatility as prices become arbitrarily high. Our generalization preserves the positivity, constant proportional drift, and tractability of GBM, while expressing the instantaneous volatility as a randomly weighted $L^2$ mean of $α$ and $β$. The running mi…
We consider the problem of maximizing the asymptotic growth rate of an investor under drift uncertainty in the setting of stochastic portfolio theory (SPT). As in the work of Kardaras and Robertson we take as inputs (i) a Markovian volatility matrix $c(x)$ and (ii) an invariant density $p(x)$ for the market weights, but we additionally impose long-only constraints on the investor. Our principal contribution is proving a uniqueness and existence result for the class of concave functionally generated portfolios and developing a finite dimensional approximation, which can be used to numerically f…
