Financial markets have developed a lot of strategies to control risks induced by market fluctuations. Mathematics has emerged as the leading discipline to address fundamental questions in finance as asset pricing model and hedging strategies. History began with the paradigm of zero-risk introduced by Black & Scholes stating that any random amount to be paid in the future may be replicated by a dynamical portfolio. In practice, the lack of information leads to ill-posed problems when model calibrating. The real world is more complex and new pricing and hedging methodologies have been necessary. This challenging question has generated a deep and intensive academic research in the 20 last years, based on super-replication (perfect or with respect to confidence level) and optimization. In the interplay between theory and practice, Monte Carlo methods have been revisited, new risk measures have been back-tested. These typical examples give some insights on how may be used mathematics in financial risk management.
In this paper, we consider the problem of hedging Asian options in financial markets with transaction costs. For this, we use the asymptotic hedging approach. The main task of asymptotic hedging in financial markets with transaction costs is to prove the probability convergence of the terminal value of the investment portfolio to the payment function when the number of portfolio revisions tends to be $n$ to infinity. In practice, this means that the investor, using such a strategy, is able to compensation payments for all financial transactions, even if their number increases unlimitedly.
This paper consists of two parts. In the first part we prove the fundamental theorem of asset pricing under short sales prohibitions in continuous-time financial models where asset prices are driven by nonnegative, locally bounded semimartingales. A key step in this proof is an extension of a well-known result of Ansel and Stricker. In the second part we study the hedging problem in these models and connect it to a properly defined property of "maximality" of contingent claims.
Optimal B-robust estimate is constructed for multidimensional parameter in drift coefficient of diffusion type process with small noise. Optimal mean-variance robust (optimal V -robust) trading strategy is find to hedge in mean-variance sense the contingent claim in incomplete financial market with arbitrary information structure and misspecified volatility of asset price, which is modelled by multidimensional continuous semimartingale. Obtained results are applied to stochastic volatility model, where the model of latent volatility process contains unknown multidimensional parameter in drift …
We investigate pricing-hedging duality for American options in discrete time financial models where some assets are traded dynamically and others, e.g. a family of European options, only statically. In the first part of the paper we consider an abstract setting, which includes the classical case with a fixed reference probability measure as well as the robust framework with a non-dominated family of probability measures. Our first insight is that by considering a (universal) enlargement of the space, we can see American options as European options and recover the pricing-hedging duality, which…
Within a Markovian complete financial market, we consider the problem of hedging a Bermudan option with a given probability. Using stochastic target and duality arguments, we derive a backward numerical scheme for the Fenchel transform of the pricing function. This algorithm is similar to the usual American backward induction, except that it requires two additional Fenchel transformations at each exercise date. We provide numerical illustrations.
In this work, we consider the hedging error due to discrete trading in models with jumps. Extending an approach developed by Fukasawa [In Stochastic Analysis with Financial Applications (2011) 331-346 Birkhäuser/Springer Basel AG] for continuous processes, we propose a framework enabling us to (asymptotically) optimize the discretization times. More precisely, a discretization rule is said to be optimal if for a given cost function, no strategy has (asymptotically, for large cost) a lower mean square discretization error for a smaller cost. We focus on discretization rules based on hitting tim…
In the framework of risk management, for the study of the sensitivity of pricing and hedging in stochastic financial models to changes of parameters and to perturbations of the stock prices, we propose an error calculus which is an extension of the Malliavin calculus based on Dirichlet forms. Although useful also in physics, this error calculus is well adapted to stochastic analysis and seems to be the best practicable in finance. This tool is explained here intuitively and with some simple examples.
In an incomplete market driven by time-changed Lévy noises we consider the problem of hedging a financial position coupled with the underlying risk of model uncertainty. Then we study hedging under worst-case-scenario. The proposed strategies are not necessarily self-financing and include the interplay of a cost process to achieve the perfect hedge at the end of the time horizon. The hedging problem is tackled in the framework of stochastic differential games and it is treated via backward stochastic differential equations. Two different information flows are considered and the solutions compa…
We consider a financial model with permanent price impact. Continuous time trading dynamics are derived as the limit of discrete rebalancing policies. We then study the problem of super-hedging a European option. Our main result is the derivation of a quasi-linear pricing equation. It holds in the sense of viscosity solutions. When it admits a smooth solution, it provides a perfect hedging strategy.
Within a financial model with linear price impact, we study the problem of hedging a covered European option under gamma constraint. Using stochastic target and partial differential equation smoothing techniques, we prove that the super-replication price is the viscosity solution of a fully non-linear parabolic equation. As a by-product, we show how $ε$-optimal strategies can be constructed. Finally, a numerical resolution scheme is proposed.
In this paper, we prove the global risk optimality of the hedging strategy of contingent claim, which is explicitly (or called semi-explicitly) constructed for an incomplete financial market with external risk factors of non-Gaussian Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (NGOU) processes. Analytical and numerical examples are both presented to illustrate the effectiveness of our optimal strategy. Our study establishes the connection between our financial system and existing general semimartingale based discussions by justifying required conditions. More precisely, there are three steps involved. First, we firmly…
This paper focuses on the valuation and hedging of gas storage facilities, using a spot-based valuation framework coupled with a financial hedging strategy implemented with futures contracts. The first novelty consist in proposing a model that unifies the dynamics of the futures curve and the spot price, which accounts for the main stylized facts of the US natural gas market, such as seasonality and presence of price spikes. The second aspect of the paper is related to the quantification of model uncertainty related to the spot dynamics.
Modelling stock prices via jump processes is common in financial markets. In practice, to hedge a contingent claim one typically uses the so-called delta-hedging strategy. This strategy stems from the Black--Merton--Scholes model where it perfectly replicates contingent claims. From the theoretical viewpoint, there is no reason for this to hold in models with jumps. However in practice the delta-hedging strategy is widely used and its potential shortcoming in models with jumps is disregarded since such models are typically incomplete and hence most contingent claims are non-attainable. In this…
The problem of hedging and pricing sequences of contingent claims in large financial markets is studied. Connection between asymptotic arbitrage and behavior of the $α$~-~quantile price is shown. The large Black-Scholes model is carefully examined.
The aim of these lectures at MITACS-PIMS-UBC Summer School in Risk Man- agement and Risk Sharing is to discuss risk controlled approaches for the pricing and hedging of financial risks. We will start with the classical dual approach for financial markets, which al- lows to rewrite super-hedging problems in terms of optimal control problems in standard form. Based on this, we shall then consider hedging and pricing prob- lems under utility or risk minimization criteria. This approach will turn out to be powerful whenever linear (or essentially linear) problems are considered, but not adapted to…
We consider insurance derivatives depending on an external physical risk process, for example a temperature in a low dimensional climate model. We assume that this process is correlated with a tradable financial asset. We derive optimal strategies for exponential utility from terminal wealth, determine the indifference prices of the derivatives, and interpret them in terms of diversification pressure. Moreover we check the optimal investment strategies for standard admissibility criteria. Finally we compare the static risk connected with an insurance derivative to the reduced risk due to a dyn…
In this paper we investigate the local risk-minimization approach for a combined financial-insurance model where there are restrictions on the information available to the insurance company. In particular we assume that, at any time, the insurance company may observe the number of deaths from a specific portfolio of insured individuals but not the mortality hazard rate. We consider a financial market driven by a general semimartingale and we aim to hedge unit-linked life insurance contracts via the local risk-minimization approach under partial information. The Föllmer-Schweizer decomposition …
A leveraged exchange traded fund (LETF) is an exchange traded fund that uses financial derivatives to amplify the price changes of a basket of goods. In this paper, we consider the robust hedging of European options on a LETF, finding model-free bounds on the price of these options. To obtain an upper bound, we establish a new optimal solution to the Skorokhod embedding problem (SEP) using methods introduced in Beiglböck-Cox-Huesmann. This stopping time can be represented as the hitting time of some region by a Brownian motion, but unlike other solutions of e.g. Root, this region is not unique…
We prove results on bounded solutions to backward stochastic equations driven by random measures. Those bounded BSDE solutions are then applied to solve different stochastic optimization problems with exponential utility in models where the underlying filtration is noncontinuous. This includes results on portfolio optimization under an additional liability and on dynamic utility indifference valuation and partial hedging in incomplete financial markets which are exposed to risk from unpredictable events. In particular, we characterize the limiting behavior of the utility indifference hedging s…
In this note, we consider a general discrete time financial market with proportional transaction costs as in Kabanov and Stricker (2001), Kabanov et al. (2002), Kabanov et al. (2003) and Schachermayer (2004). We provide a dual formulation for the set of initial endowments which allow to super-hedge some American claim. We show that this extends the result of Chalasani and Jha (2001) which was obtained in a model with constant transaction costs and risky assets which evolve on a finite dimensional tree. We also provide fairly general conditions under which the expected formulation in terms of s…
We model a nonlinear price curve quoted in a market as the utility indifference curve of a representative liquidity supplier. As the utility function we adopt a g-expectation. In contrast to the standard framework of financial engineering, a trader is no more price taker as any trade has a permanent market impact via an effect to the supplier's inventory. The P&L of a trading strategy is written as a nonlinear stochastic integral. Under this market impact model, we introduce a completeness condition under which any derivative can be perfectly replicated by a dynamic trading strategy. In the sp…
This paper is concerned with the study of insurance related derivatives on financial markets that are based on non-tradable underlyings, but are correlated with tradable assets. We calculate exponential utility-based indifference prices, and corresponding derivative hedges. We use the fact that they can be represented in terms of solutions of forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDE) with quadratic growth generators. We derive the Markov property of such FBSDE and generalize results on the differentiability relative to the initial value of their forward components. In this cas…
We consider a multivariate financial market with transaction costs and study the problem of finding the minimal initial capital needed to hedge, without risk, European-type contingent claims. The model is similar to the one considered in Bouchard and Touzi (2000), except that some of the assets can be exchanged freely, i.e. without paying transaction costs. In this context, we generalize the result of the above paper and prove that the value of this stochastic control problem is given by the cost of the cheapest hedging strategy in which the number of non-freely exchangeable assets is kept con…
The question of pricing and hedging a given contingent claim has a unique solution in a complete market framework. When some incompleteness is introduced, the problem becomes however more difficult. Several approaches have been adopted in the literature to provide a satisfactory answer to this problem, for a particular choice criterion. In this paper, in order to price and hedge a non-tradable contingent claim, we first start with a (standard) utility maximization problem and end up with an equivalent risk measure minimization. This hedging problem can be seen as a particular case of a more ge…
We consider a financial market where stocks are available for dynamic trading, and European and American options are available for static trading (semi-static trading strategies). We assume that the American options are infinitely divisible, and can only be bought but not sold. In the first part of the paper, we work within the framework without model ambiguity. We first get the fundamental theorem of asset pricing (FTAP). Using the FTAP, we get the dualities for the hedging prices of European and American options. Based on the hedging dualities, we also get the duality for the utility maximiz…
We study the point of transition between complete and incomplete financial models thanks to Dirichlet Forms methods. We apply recent techniques, developped by Bouleau, to hedging procedures in order to perturbate parameters and stochastic processes, in the case of a volatility parameter fixed but uncertain for traders; we call this model Perturbed Black Scholes (PBS) Model. We show that this model can reproduce at the same time a smile effect and a bid-ask spread; we exhibit the volatility function associated to the local-volatility model equivalent to PBS model when vanilla options are concer…
This paper does not suppose a priori that the evolution of the price of a financial asset is a semimartingale. Since possible strategies of investors are self-financing, previous prices are forced to be finite quadratic variation processes. The non-arbitrage property is not excluded if the class $\mathcal{A}$ of admissible strategies is restricted. The classical notion of martingale is replaced with the notion of $\mathcal{A}$-martingale. A calculus related to $\mathcal{A}$-martingales with some examples is developed. Some applications to no-arbitrage, viability, hedging and the maximization o…
The paper develops a new class of financial market models. These models are based on generalized telegraph processes: Markov random flows with alternating velocities and jumps occurring when the velocities are switching. While such markets may admit an arbitrage opportunity, the model under consideration is arbitrage-free and complete if directions of jumps in stock prices are in a certain correspondence with their velocity and interest rate behaviour. An analog of the Black-Scholes fundamental differential equation is derived, but, in contrast with the Black-Scholes model, this equation is hy…
We study the pricing and hedging of derivatives in incomplete financial markets by considering the local risk-minimization method in the context of the benchmark approach, which will be called benchmarked local risk-minimization. We show that the proposed benchmarked local risk-minimization allows to handle under extremely weak assumptions a much richer modeling world than the classical methodology.
