arXiv subjects

Peter Tankov

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Tankov.

52 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Asymptotically optimal discretization of hedging strategies with jumps

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 times and give explicit expressions for the optimal rules within this class.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2013

Market models with optimal arbitrage

We construct and study market models admitting optimal arbitrage. We say that a model admits optimal arbitrage if it is possible, in a zero-interest rate setting, starting with an initial wealth of 1 and using only positive portfolios, to superreplicate a constant c>1. The optimal arbitrage strategy is the strategy for which this constant has the highest possible value. Our definition of optimal arbitrage is similar to the one in Fernholz and Karatzas (2010), where optimal relative arbitrage with respect to the market portfolio is studied. In this work we present a systematic method to construct market models where the optimal arbitrage strategy exists and is known explicitly. We then develop several new examples of market models with arbitrage, which are based on economic agents' views concerning the impossibility of certain events rather than ad hoc constructions. We also explore the concept of fragility of arbitrage introduced in Guasoni and Rasonyi (2012), and provide new examples of arbitrage models which are not fragile in this sense.

q-fin.PR↗

arXiv2013

Numerical methods for the quadratic hedging problem in Markov models with jumps

We develop algorithms for the numerical computation of the quadratic hedging strategy in incomplete markets modeled by pure jump Markov process. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman approach, the value function of the quadratic hedging problem can be related to a triangular system of parabolic partial integro-differential equations (PIDE), which can be shown to possess unique smooth solutions in our setting. The first equation is non-linear, but does not depend on the pay-off of the option to hedge (the pure investment problem), while the other two equations are linear. We propose convergent finite difference schemes for the numerical solution of these PIDEs and illustrate our results with an application to electricity markets, where time-inhomogeneous pure jump Markov processes appear in a natural manner.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2013

Finite-dimensional representations for controlled diffusions with delay

We study stochastic delay differential equations (SDDE) where the coefficients depend on the moving averages of the state process. As a first contribution, we provide sufficient conditions under which a linear path functional of the solution of a SDDE admits a finite-dimensional Markovian representation. As a second contribution, we show how approximate finite-dimensional Markovian representations may be constructed when these conditions are not satisfied, and provide an estimate of the error corresponding to these approximations. These results are applied to optimal control and optimal stopping problems for stochastic systems with delay.

math.PR↗

arXiv2013

Hedging under multiple risk constraints

Motivated by the asset-liability management of a nuclear power plant operator, we consider the problem of finding the least expensive portfolio, which outperforms a given set of stochastic benchmarks. For a specified loss function, the expected shortfall with respect to each of the benchmarks weighted by this loss function must remain bounded by a given threshold. We consider different alternative formulations of this problem in a complete market setting, establish the relationship between these formulations, present a general resolution methodology via dynamic programming in a non-Markovian context and give explicit solutions in special cases.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2012

A new look at short-term implied volatility in asset price models with jumps

We analyse the behaviour of the implied volatility smile for options close to expiry in the exponential Lévy class of asset price models with jumps. We introduce a new renormalisation of the strike variable with the property that the implied volatility converges to a non-constant limiting shape, which is a function of both the diffusion component of the process and the jump activity (Blumenthal-Getoor) index of the jump component. Our limiting implied volatility formula relates the jump activity of the underlying asset price process to the short end of the implied volatility surface and sheds new light on the difference between finite and infinite variation jumps from the viewpoint of option prices: in the latter, the wings of the limiting smile are determined by the jump activity indices of the positive and negative jumps, whereas in the former, the wings have a constant model-independent slope. This result gives a theoretical justification for the preference of the infinite variation Lévy models over the finite variation ones in the calibration based on short-maturity option prices.

q-fin.PR↗

arXiv2012

Optimal simulation schemes for Lévy driven stochastic differential equations

We consider a general class of high order weak approximation schemes for stochastic differential equations driven by Lévy processes with infinite activity. These schemes combine a compound Poisson approximation for the jump part of the Lévy process with a high order scheme for the Brownian driven component, applied between the jump times. The overall approximation is analyzed using a stochastic splitting argument. The resulting error bound involves separate contributions of the compound Poisson approximation and of the discretization scheme for the Brownian part, and allows, on one hand, to balance the two contributions in order to minimize the computational time, and on the other hand, to study the optimal design of the approximating compound Poisson process. For driving processes whose Lévy measure explodes near zero in a regularly varying way, this procedure allows to construct discretization schemes with arbitrary order of convergence.

math.PR↗

arXiv2011

Arbitrage Opportunities in Misspecified Stochastic volatility Models

There is vast empirical evidence that given a set of assumptions on the real-world dynamics of an asset, the European options on this asset are not efficiently priced in options markets, giving rise to arbitrage opportunities. We study these opportunities in a generic stochastic volatility model and exhibit the strategies which maximize the arbitrage profit. In the case when the misspecified dynamics is a classical Black-Scholes one, we give a new interpretation of the classical butterfly and risk reversal contracts in terms of their (near) optimality for arbitrage strategies. Our results are illustrated by a numerical example including transaction costs.

q-fin.PR↗

arXiv2011

Improved Frechet bounds and model-free pricing of multi-asset options

Improved bounds on the copula of a bivariate random vector are computed when partial information is available, such as the values of the copula on a given subset of $[0,1]^2$, or the value of a functional of the copula, monotone with respect to the concordance order. These results are then used to compute model-free bounds on the prices of two-asset options which make use of extra information about the dependence structure, such as the price of another two-asset option.

q-fin.PR↗

arXiv2011

Portfolio Insurance under a risk-measure constraint

We study the problem of portfolio insurance from the point of view of a fund manager, who guarantees to the investor that the portfolio value at maturity will be above a fixed threshold. If, at maturity, the portfolio value is below the guaranteed level, a third party will refund the investor up to the guarantee. In exchange for this protection, the third party imposes a limit on the risk exposure of the fund manager, in the form of a convex monetary risk measure. The fund manager therefore tries to maximize the investor's utility function subject to the risk measure constraint.We give a full solution to this nonconvex optimization problem in the complete market setting and show in particular that the choice of the risk measure is crucial for the optimal portfolio to exist. Explicit results are provided for the entropic risk measure (for which the optimal portfolio always exists) and for the class of spectral risk measures (for which the optimal portfolio may fail to exist in some cases).

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2011

Swing Options Valuation: a BSDE with Constrained Jumps Approach

We introduce a new probabilistic method for solving a class of impulse control problems based on their representations as Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (BSDEs for short) with constrained jumps. As an example, our method is used for pricing Swing options. We deal with the jump constraint by a penalization procedure and apply a discrete-time backward scheme to the resulting penalized BSDE with jumps. We study the convergence of this numerical method, with respect to the main approximation parameters: the jump intensity $λ$, the penalization parameter $p > 0$ and the time step. In particular, we obtain a convergence rate of the error due to penalization of order $(λp)^{α- \frac{1}{2}}, \forall α\in \left(0, \frac{1}{2}\right)$. Combining this approach with Monte Carlo techniques, we then work out the valuation problem of (normalized) Swing options in the Black and Scholes framework. We present numerical tests and compare our results with a classical iteration method.

q-fin.CP↗

arXiv2010

High order weak approximation schemes for Lévy-driven SDEs

We propose new jump-adapted weak approximation schemes for stochastic differential equations driven by pure-jump Lévy processes. The idea is to replace the driving Lévy process $Z$ with a finite intensity process which has the same Lévy measure outside a neighborhood of zero and matches a given number of moments of $Z$. By matching 3 moments we construct a scheme which works for all Lévy measures and is superior to the existing approaches both in terms of convergence rates and easiness of implementation. In the case of Lévy processes with stable-like behavior of small jumps, we construct schemes with arbitrarily high rates of convergence by matching a sufficiently large number of moments.

math.PR↗

arXiv2010

A finite dimensional approximation for pricing moving average options

We propose a method for pricing American options whose pay-off depends on the moving average of the underlying asset price. The method uses a finite dimensional approximation of the infinite-dimensional dynamics of the moving average process based on a truncated Laguerre series expansion. The resulting problem is a finite-dimensional optimal stopping problem, which we propose to solve with a least squares Monte Carlo approach. We analyze the theoretical convergence rate of our method and present numerical results in the Black-Scholes framework.

q-fin.PR↗

arXiv2010

Asymptotic results and statistical procedures for time-changed Lévy processes sampled at hitting times

We provide asymptotic results and develop high frequency statistical procedures for time-changed Lévy processes sampled at random instants. The sampling times are given by first hitting times of symmetric barriers whose distance with respect to the starting point is equal to $\varepsilon$. This setting can be seen as a first step towards a model for tick-by-tick financial data allowing for large jumps. For a wide class of Lévy processes, we introduce a renormalization depending on $\varepsilon$, under which the Lévy process converges in law to an $α$-stable process as $\varepsilon$ goes to $0$. The convergence is extended to moments of hitting times and overshoots. In particular, these results allow us to construct consistent estimators of the time change and of the Blumenthal-Getoor index of the underlying Lévy process. Convergence rates and a central limit theorem are established under additional assumptions.

math.PR↗

arXiv2010

Tracking errors from discrete hedging in exponential Lévy models

We analyze the errors arising from discrete readjustment of the hedging portfolio when hedging options in exponential Levy models, and establish the rate at which the expected squared error goes to zero when the readjustment frequency increases. We compare the quadratic hedging strategy with the common market practice of delta hedging, and show that for discontinuous option pay-offs the latter strategy may suffer from very large discretization errors. For options with discontinuous pay-offs, the convergence rate depends on the underlying Levy process, and we give an explicit relation between the rate and the Blumenthal-Getoor index of the process.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2008

Optimal consumption policies in illiquid markets

We investigate optimal consumption policies in the liquidity risk model introduced in Pham and Tankov (2007). Our main result is to derive smoothness results for the value functions of the portfolio/consumption choice problem. As an important consequence, we can prove the existence of the optimal control (portfolio/consumption strategy) which we characterize both in feedback form in terms of the derivatives of the value functions and as the solution of a second-order ODE. Finally, numerical illustrations of the behavior of optimal consumption strategies between two trading dates are given.

math.PR↗