arXiv subjects

Jim Gatheral

Publications and source records attributed to Jim Gatheral.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Computing the SSR

The skew-stickiness-ratio (SSR), examined in detail by Bergomi in his book, is critically important to options traders, especially market makers. We present a model-free expression for the SSR in terms of the characteristic function. In the diffusion setting, it is well-known that the short-term limit of the SSR is 2; a corollary of our results is that this limit is $H+3/2$ where $H$ is the Hurst exponent of the volatility process. The general formula for the SSR simplifies and becomes particularly tractable in the affine forward variance case. We explain the qualitative behavior of the SSR with respect to the shape of the forward variance curve, and thus also path-dependence of the SSR.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2023

A generalization of the rational rough Heston approximation

Previously, in [GR19], we derived a rational approximation of the solution of the rough Heston fractional ODE in the special case \lambda = 0, which corresponds to a pure power-law kernel. In this paper we extend this solution to the general case of the Mittag-Leffler kernel with \lambda \geq 0. We provide numerical evidence of the convergence of the solution.

q-fin.CP↗

arXiv2022

Diamonds and forward variance models

In this non-technical introduction to diamond trees and forests, we focus on their application to computation in stochastic volatility models written in forward variance form, rough volatility models in particular.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2021

A rough SABR formula

Following an approach originally suggested by Balland in the context of the SABR model, we derive an ODE that is satisfied by normalized volatility smiles for short maturities under a rough volatility extension of the SABR model that extends also the rough Bergomi model. We solve this ODE numerically and further present a very accurate approximation to the numerical solution that we dub the rough SABR formula.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2020

Forests, cumulants, martingales

This work is concerned with forest and cumulant type expansions of general random variables on a filtered probability spaces. We establish a "broken exponential martingale" expansion that generalizes and unifies the exponentiation result of Al{ò}s, Gatheral, and Radoičić and the cumulant recursion formula of Lacoin, Rhodes, and Vargas. Specifically, we exhibit the two previous results as lower dimensional projections of the same generalized forest expansion, subsequently related by forest reordering. Our approach also leads to sharp integrability conditions for validity of the cumulant formula, as required by many of our examples, including iterated stochastic integrals, Lévy area, Bessel processes, KPZ with smooth noise, Wiener-Itô chaos and "rough" stochastic (forward) variance models.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

The quadratic rough Heston model and the joint S&P 500/VIX smile calibration problem

Fitting simultaneously SPX and VIX smiles is known to be one of the most challenging problems in volatility modeling. A long-standing conjecture due to Julien Guyon is that it may not be possible to calibrate jointly these two quantities with a model with continuous sample-paths. We present the quadratic rough Heston model as a counterexample to this conjecture. The key idea is the combination of rough volatility together with a price-feedback (Zumbach) effect.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2019

Short-term at-the-money asymptotics under stochastic volatility models

A small-time Edgeworth expansion of the density of an asset price is given under a general stochastic volatility model, from which asymptotic expansions of put option prices and at-the-money implied volatilities follow. A limit theorem for at-the-money implied volatility skew and curvature is also given as a corollary. The rough Bergomi model is treated as an example.

q-fin.CP↗

arXiv2018

Affine forward variance models

We introduce the class of affine forward variance (AFV) models of which both the conventional Heston model and the rough Heston model are special cases. We show that AFV models can be characterized by the affine form of their cumulant generating function, which can be obtained as solution of a convolution Riccati equation. We further introduce the class of affine forward order flow intensity (AFI) models, which are structurally similar to AFV models, but driven by jump processes, and which include Hawkes-type models. We show that the cumulant generating function of an AFI model satisfies a generalized convolution Riccati equation and that a high-frequency limit of AFI models converges in distribution to the AFV model.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2018

The Zumbach effect under rough Heston

Previous literature has identified an effect, dubbed the Zumbach effect, that is nonzero empirically but conjectured to be zero in any conventional stochastic volatility model. Essentially this effect corresponds to the property that past squared returns forecast future volatilities better than past volatilities forecast future squared returns. We provide explicit computations of the Zumbach effect under rough Heston and show that they are consistent with empirical estimates. In agreement with previous conjectures however, the Zumbach effect is found to be negligible in the classical Heston model.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2014

Optimal execution with nonlinear transient market impact

We study the problem of the optimal execution of a large trade in the presence of nonlinear transient impact. We propose an approach based on homotopy analysis, whereby a well behaved initial strategy is continuously deformed to lower the expected execution cost. We find that the optimal solution is front loaded for concave impact and that its expected cost is significantly lower than that of conventional strategies. We then consider brute force numerical optimization of the cost functional; we find that the optimal solution for a buy program typically features a few short intense buying periods separated by long periods of weak selling. Indeed, in some cases we find negative expected cost. We show that this undesirable characteristic of the nonlinear transient impact model may be mitigated either by introducing a bid-ask spread cost or by imposing convexity of the instantaneous market impact function for large trading rates.

q-fin.TR↗

arXiv2014

Volatility is rough

Estimating volatility from recent high frequency data, we revisit the question of the smoothness of the volatility process. Our main result is that log-volatility behaves essentially as a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst exponent H of order 0.1, at any reasonable time scale. This leads us to adopt the fractional stochastic volatility (FSV) model of Comte and Renault. We call our model Rough FSV (RFSV) to underline that, in contrast to FSV, H<1/2. We demonstrate that our RFSV model is remarkably consistent with financial time series data; one application is that it enables us to obtain improved forecasts of realized volatility. Furthermore, we find that although volatility is not long memory in the RFSV model, classical statistical procedures aiming at detecting volatility persistence tend to conclude the presence of long memory in data generated from it. This sheds light on why long memory of volatility has been widely accepted as a stylized fact. Finally, we provide a quantitative market microstructure-based foundation for our findings, relating the roughness of volatility to high frequency trading and order splitting.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2013

Arbitrage-free SVI volatility surfaces

In this article, we show how to calibrate the widely-used SVI parameterization of the implied volatility surface in such a way as to guarantee the absence of static arbitrage. In particular, we exhibit a large class of arbitrage-free SVI volatility surfaces with a simple closed-form representation. We demonstrate the high quality of typical SVI fits with a numerical example using recent SPX options data.

q-fin.PR↗

arXiv2010

Convergence of Heston to SVI

In this short note, we prove by an appropriate change of variables that the SVI implied volatility parameterization presented in Gatheral's book and the large-time asymptotic of the Heston implied volatility agree algebraically, thus confirming a conjecture from Gatheral as well as providing a simpler expression for the asymptotic implied volatility in the Heston model. We show how this result can help in interpreting SVI parameters.

q-fin.PR↗