This paper is motivated by questions about averages of stochastic processes which originate in mathematical finance, originally in connection with valuing the so-called Asian options. Starting with research of Yor's in 1992, these questions about exponential functionals of Brownian motion have been studied in terms of Bessel processes using Yor's 1980 Hartman-Watson theory. Consequences of this approach for valuing Asian options proper have been spelled out by Geman and Yor in 1993 whose Laplace transform results were in fact regarded as a noted advance. Unfortunately, a number of difficulties with the key results of this last contribution have surfaced which are now addressed in this paper. One of them in particular is of a principal nature and originates with the Hartman-Watson approach itself: this approach is in general applicable without modifications only if it does not involve Bessel processes of negative indices. The main mathematical contribution of this paper is the developement of three principal ways to overcome these restrictions, in particular by merging stochastics and complex analysis in what seems a novel way, and the discussion of their consequences for the valuation of Asian options proper.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate geometric Asian option by a mixed fractional subdiffusive Black-Scholes model. We derive a pricing formula for geometric Asian option when the underlying stock follows a time changed mixed fractional Brownian motion. We then apply the results to price Asian power options on the stocks that pay constant dividends when the payoff is a power function. Finally, lower bound of Asian options and some special cases are provided.
The 1993 Laplace transform approach of Geman and Yor is a celebrated advance in valuing Asian options. Its insights are fundamental from both a mathematical and a financial perspective. In this paper, we discuss two observations regarding the financial relevance of its results. First, we show that the Geman and Yor Laplace transform is not that of an Asian option price, as reported in Geman and Yor and other papers. We nonetheless show how the Geman and Yor Laplace transform can be used to obtain the price of an Asian option. Second, we find that following Geman and Yor these Laplace transfoms…
Barrieu, Rouault, and Yor [J. Appl. Probab. 41 (2004)] determined asymptotics for the logarithm of the distribution function of the Hartman-Watson distribution. We determine the asymptotics of the density. This refinement can be applied to the pricing of Asian options in the Black-Scholes model.
The mixed fractional Brownian motion ($mfBm$) has become quite popular in finance, since it allows one to model long-range dependence and self-similarity while remaining, for certain values of the Hurst parameter, arbitrage-free. In the present paper, we propose approximate closed-form solutions for pricing arithmetic Asian options on an underlying described by the $mfBm$. Specifically, we consider both arithmetic Asian options and arithmetic Asian power options, and we obtain analytical formulas for pricing them based on a convenient approximation of the strike price. Both the standard $mfBm$…
In a recent significant advance, using Laguerre series, the valuation of Asian options has been reduced by Dufresne to computing the negative moments of Yor's accumulation processes. For these he has given functional recursion rules whose probabilistic structure has been the object of intensive recent studies of Yor and co-workers. Stressing the role of Theta functions, this paper now solves these recursion rules and expresses these negative moments as linear combinations of certain Theta integrals. Using the Jacobi transformation formula, very rapidly and very stably convergent series for the…
Averaging problems are ubiquitous in Finance with the valuation of the so-called Asian options on arithmetic averages as their most conspicuous form. There is an abundance of numerical work on them, and their stochastic structure has been extensively studied by Yor and his school. However, the analytical structure of these problems is largely unstudied. Our philosophy now is that such valuation problems should be considered as an extension of the theory of special functions: they lead to new problems about new classes of special functions which should be studied in terms of and using of the me…
The purpose of this note is to describe, in terms of a power series, the distribution function of the exponential functional, taken at some independent exponential time, of a spectrally negative Lévy process ξwith unbounded variation. We also derive a Geman-Yor type formula for Asian options prices in a financial market driven by e^ξ.
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 sudden exogenous events in the economy. Asian options are particularly interesting because the payoff depends on the integrated asset price. We study the case of both floating- and fixed-strike Asian call options with arithmetic averaging when the asset follows a regime-switching ge…
The time average of geometric Brownian motion plays a crucial role in the pricing of Asian options in mathematical finance. In this paper we consider the asymptotics of the discrete-time average of a geometric Brownian motion sampled on uniformly spaced times in the limit of a very large number of averaging time steps. We derive almost sure limit, fluctuations, large deviations, and also the asymptotics of the moment generating function of the average. Based on these results, we derive the asymptotics for the price of Asian options with discrete-time averaging in the Black-Scholes model, with …
The distribution of a time integral of geometric Brownian motion is not well understood. To price an Asian option and to obtain measures of its dependence on the parameters of time, strike price, and underlying market price, it is essential to have the distribution of time integral of geometric Brownian motion and it is also required to have a way to manipulate its distribution. We present integral forms for key quantities in the price of Asian option and its derivatives ({\it{delta, gamma,theta, and vega}}). For example for any $a>0$ $\mathbb{E} [ (A_t -a)^+] = t -a + a^{2} \mathbb{E} [ (a+A_…
We provide results relating to the integrability, uniform integrability and local integrability of exponential MAPs, which are natural extensions of exponential Levy models. Then, we use Mellin transform and partial integro-differential equation methods to value European options under a such a model. Finally, a comparison is made between the price of a European call option and that of an Asian call option.
One method to compute the price of an arithmetic Asian option in a Levy driven model is based on the exponential functional of the underlying Levy process: If we know the distribution of the exponential functional, we can calculate the price of the Asian option via the inverse Laplace transform. In this paper we consider pricing Asian options in a model driven by a general meromorphic Levy process. We prove that the exponential functional is equal in distribution to an infinite product of indepedent beta random variables, and its Mellin transform can be expressed as an infinite product of gamm…
This paper derives integral representations for the Black-Scholes price of arithmetic-average Asian options. Their proof is by Laplace inverting the 1992 Laplace transform of Geman-Yor using complex analytic methods. The analysis ultimately rests on the gamma function which in this sense is at the base of Asian options. The results of Geman-Yor are corrected and their validitity is extended.
Although many methods for computing the Greeks of discrete-time Asian options are proposed, few methods to calculate the Greeks of continuous-time Asian options are known. In this paper, we develop an integration by parts formula in the multi-dimensional Malliavin calculus, and apply it to obtain the Greeks formulae for continuous-time Asian options in the multi-asset situation. We combine the Malliavin method with the quasi-Monte Carlo method to calculate the Greeks in simulation. We discuss the asymptotic convergence of simulation estimates for the continuous-time Asian option Greeks obtaine…
The discrete sum of geometric Brownian motions plays an important role in modeling stochastic annuities in insurance. It also plays a pivotal role in the pricing of Asian options in mathematical finance. In this paper, we study the probability distributions of the infinite sum of geometric Brownian motions, the sum of geometric Brownian motions with geometric stopping time, and the finite sum of the geometric Brownian motions. These results are extended to the discrete sum of the exponential Lévy process. We derive tail asymptotics and compute numerically the asymptotic distribution function. …
We consider the problem of finding model-independent bounds on the price of an Asian option, when the call prices at the maturity date of the option are known. Our methods differ from most approaches to model-independent pricing in that we consider the problem as a dynamic programming problem, where the controlled process is the conditional distribution of the asset at the maturity date. By formulating the problem in this manner, we are able to determine the model-independent price through a PDE formulation. Notably, this approach does not require specific constraints on the payoff function (e…
In this article we discuss the problem of calculating optimal model-independent (robust) bounds for the price of Asian options with discrete and continuous averaging. We will give geometric characterisations of the maximising and the minimising pricing model for certain types of Asian options in discrete and continuous time. In discrete time the problem is reduced to finding the optimal martingale transport for the cost function $|x+y|$. In the continuous time case we consider the cases with one and two given marginals. We describe the maximising models in both of these cases as well as the mi…
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.
Taking advantage of the recent litterature on exact simulation algorithms (Beskos, Papaspiliopoulos and Roberts) and unbiased estimation of the expectation of certain fonctional integrals (Wagner, Beskos et al. and Fearnhead et al.), we apply an exact simulation based technique for pricing continuous arithmetic average Asian options in the Black and Scholes framework. Unlike existing Monte Carlo methods, we are no longer prone to the discretization bias resulting from the approximation of continuous time processes through discrete sampling. Numerical results of simulation studies are presented…
Motivated by a common Mathematical Finance topic, we discuss the reciprocal of the exit time from a cone of planar Brownian motion which also corresponds to the exponential functional of an associated Brownian motion. We prove a conjecture by Vakeroudis and Yor (2012) concerning infinite divisibility properties of this random variable and we present a novel simple proof of De Blassie's result (1987-1988) about the asymptotic behaviour of the distribution of the Bessel clock appearing in the skew-product representation of planar Brownian motion, for t large. Similar issues for the exponential f…
As a complement to some recent work by Pal and Protter, "Strict local martingales, bubbles, and no early exercise", we show that the call option prices associated with the Bessel strict local martingales are integrable over time, and we discuss the probability densities obtained thus.
In this paper we give easy-to-implement closed-form expressions for European and Asian Greeks for general L2-payoff functions and underlying assets in an exponential Lévy process model with nonvanishing Brownian motion part. The results are based on Hilbert space valued Malliavin Calculus and extend previous results from the literature. Numerical experiments suggest, that in the case of a continuous payoff function, a combination of Malliavin Monte Carlo Greeks and the finite difference method has a better convergence behavior, whereas in the case of discontinuous payoff functions, the Malliav…
We consider the problem of pricing path-dependent options on a basket of underlying assets using simulations. As an example we develop our studies using Asian options. Asian options are derivative contracts in which the underlying variable is the average price of given assets sampled over a period of time. Due to this structure, Asian options display a lower volatility and are therefore cheaper than their standard European counterparts. This paper is a survey of some recent enhancements to improve efficiency when pricing Asian options by Monte Carlo simulation in the Black-Scholes model. We an…
The purpose of this paper is to analyze solutions of a non-local nonlinear partial integro-differential equation (PIDE) in multidimensional spaces. Such class of PIDE often arises in financial modeling. We employ the theory of abstract semilinear parabolic equations in order to prove existence and uniqueness of solutions in the scale of Bessel potential spaces. We consider a wide class of Lévy measures satisfying suitable growth conditions near the origin and infinity. The novelty of the paper is the generalization of already known results in the one space dimension to the multidimensional cas…
In this paper, we are concerned with the valuation of Catastrophic Mortality Bonds and, in particular, we examine the case of the Swiss Re Mortality Bond 2003 as a primary example of this class of assets. This bond was the first Catastrophic Mortality Bond to be launched in the market and encapsulates the behaviour of a well-defined mortality index to generate payoffs for bondholders. Pricing these type of bonds is a challenging task and no closed form solution exists in the literature. In our approach, we express the payoff of such a bond in terms of the payoff of an Asian put option and pres…
We show that several general classes of stochastic processes satisfy a functional co-monotony principle, including processes with independent increments, Brownian diffusions, Liouville processes. As a first application, we recover some recent results about peacock processes obtained by Hirsch et al. which were themselves motivated by a former work of Carr et al. about the sensitivity of Asian Call options with respect to their volatility and residual maturity (seniority). We also derive semi-universal bounds for various barrier options.
We consider the exact path sampling of the squared Bessel process and some other continuous-time Markov processes, such as the CIR model, constant elasticity of variance diffusion model, and hypergeometric diffusions, which can all be obtained from a squared Bessel process by using a change of variable, time and scale transformation, and/or change of measure. All these diffusions are broadly used in mathematical finance for modelling asset prices, market indices, and interest rates. We show how the probability distributions of a squared Bessel bridge and a squared Bessel process with or withou…
The Constant Elasticity of Variance (CEV) model is mathematically presented and then used in a Credit-Equity hybrid framework. Next, we propose extensions to the CEV model with default: firstly by adding a stochastic volatility diffusion uncorrelated from the stock price process, then by more generally time changing Bessel processes and finally by correlating stochastic volatility moves to the stock ones. Properties about strict local and true martingales in this study are discussed. Analytical formulas are provided and Fourier and Laplace transform techniques can then be used to compute optio…
Let $X$ be a squared Bessel process. Following a Feynman-Kac approach, the Laplace transforms of joint laws of $(U, \int_0^{R_y}X_s^p\,ds)$ are studied where $R_y$ is the first hitting time of $y$ by $X$ and $U$ is a random variable measurable with respect to the history of $X$ until $R_y$. A subset of these results are then used to solve the associated small ball problems for $\int_0^{R_y}X_s^p\,ds$ and determine a Chung's law of iterated logarithm. $(\int_0^{R_y}X_s^p\,ds)$ is also considered as a purely discontinuous increasing Markov process and its infinitesimal generator is found. The fi…
This is the second part of our survey on exponential functionals of Brownian motion. We focus on the applications of the results about the distributions of the exponential functionals, which have been discussed in the first part. Pricing formula for call options for the Asian options, explicit expressions for the heat kernels on hyperbolic spaces, diffusion processes in random environments and extensions of Lévy's and Pitman's theorems are discussed.
We develop generic and efficient importance sampling estimators for Monte Carlo evaluation of prices of single- and multi-asset European and path-dependent options in asset price models driven by Lévy processes, extending earlier works which focused on the Black-Scholes and continuous stochastic volatility models. Using recent results from the theory of large deviations on the path space for processes with independent increments, we compute an explicit asymptotic approximation for the variance of the pay-off under an Esscher-style change of measure. Minimizing this asymptotic variance using co…
Exponential functionals of Brownian motion have been extensively studied in financial and insurance mathematics due to their broad applications, for example, in the pricing of Asian options. The Black-Scholes model is appealing because of mathematical tractability, yet empirical evidence shows that geometric Brownian motion does not adequately capture features of market equity returns. One popular alternative for modeling equity returns consists in replacing the geometric Brownian motion by an exponential of a Levy process. In this paper we use this latter model to study variable annuity guara…
The joint distribution of a geometric Brownian motion and its time-integral was derived in a seminal paper by Yor (1992) using Lamperti's transformation, leading to explicit solutions in terms of modified Bessel functions. In this paper, we revisit this classic result using the simple Laplace transform approach in connection to the Heun differential equation. We extend the methodology to the geometric Brownian motion with affine drift and show that the joint distribution of this process and its time-integral can be determined by a doubly-confluent Heun equation. Furthermore, the joint Laplace …
In this study we consider the pricing of energy derivatives when the evolution of spot prices is modeled with a normal tempered stable driven Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. Such processes are the generalization of normal inverse Gaussian processes that are widely used in energy finance applications. We first specify their statistical properties calculating their characteristic function in closed form. This result is instrumental for the derivation of non-arbitrage conditions such that the spot dynamics is consistent with the forward curve without relying on numerical approximations or on numerica…
We find a simple expression for the probability density of $\int \exp (B_s - s/2) ds$ in terms of its distribution function and the distribution function for the time integral of $\exp (B_s + s/2)$. The relation is obtained with a change of measure argument where expectations over events determined by the time integral are replaced by expectations over the entire probability space. We develop precise information concerning the lower tail probabilities for these random variables as well as for time integrals of geometric Brownian motion with arbitrary constant drift. In particular, $E[ \exp\big…
The aim of this paper is to investigate discrete approximations of the exponential functional $\int_0^{\infty} \exp(B(t) - νt) \di t$ of Brownian motion (which plays an important role in Asian options of financial mathematics) by the help of simple, symmetric random walks. In some applications the discrete model could be even more natural than the continuous one. The properties of the discrete exponential functional are rather different from the continuous one: typically its distribution is singular w.r.t. Lebesgue measure, all of its positive integer moments are finite and they characterize t…
