arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Stefan Gerhold.
We employ computer algebra algorithms to prove a collection of identities involving Bessel functions with half-integer orders and other special functions. These identities appear in the famous Handbook of Mathematical Functions, as well as in its successor, the DLMF, but their proofs were lost. We use generating functions and symbolic summation techniques to produce new proofs for them.
There are several (mathematical) reasons why Dupire's formula fails in the non-diffusion setting. And yet, in practice, ad-hoc preconditioning of the option data works reasonably well. In this note we attempt to explain why. In particular, we propose a regularization procedure of the option data so that Dupire's local vol diffusion process recreates the correct option prices, even in manifest presence of jumps.
In a market with one safe and one risky asset, an investor with a long horizon, constant investment opportunities, and constant relative risk aversion trades with small proportional transaction costs. We derive explicit formulas for the optimal investment policy, its implied welfare, liquidity premium, and trading volume. At the first order, the liquidity premium equals the spread, times share turnover, times a universal constant. Results are robust to consumption and finite horizons. We exploit the equivalence of the transaction cost market to another frictionless market, with a shadow risky asset, in which investment opportunities are stochastic. The shadow price is also found explicitly.
It is "well known" that there is no explicit expression for the Black-Scholes implied volatility. We prove that, as a function of underlying, strike, and call price, implied volatility does not belong to the class of D-finite functions. This does not rule out all explicit expressions, but shows that implied volatility does not belong to a certain large class, which contains many elementary functions and classical special functions.
We give conditions under which the normalized marginal distribution of a semimartingale converges to a Gaussian limit law as time tends to zero. In particular, our result is applicable to solutions of stochastic differential equations with locally bounded and continuous coefficients. The limit theorems are subsequently extended to functional central limit theorems on the process level. We present two applications of the results in the field of mathematical finance: to the pricing of at-the-money digital options with short maturities and short time implied volatility skews.
We determine the price of digital double barrier options with an arbitrary number of barrier periods in the Black-Scholes model. This means that the barriers are active during some time intervals, but are switched off in between. As an application, we calculate the value of a structure floor for structured notes whose individual coupons are digital double barrier options. This value can also be approximated by the price of a corridor put.
We revisit the problem of maximizing expected logarithmic utility from consumption over an infinite horizon in the Black-Scholes model with proportional transaction costs, as studied in the seminal paper of Davis and Norman [Math. Operation Research, 15, 1990]. Similarly to Kallsen and Muhle-Karbe [Ann. Appl. Probab., 20, 2010], we tackle this problem by determining a shadow price, that is, a frictionless price process with values in the bid-ask spread which leads to the same optimization problem. However, we use a different parametrization, which facilitates computation and verification. Moreover, for small transaction costs, we determine fractional Taylor expansions of arbitrary order for the boundaries of the no-trade region and the value function. This extends work of Janecek and Shreve [Finance Stoch., 8, 2004], who determined the leading terms of these power series.
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.
A robust implementation of a Dupire type local volatility model is an important issue for every option trading floor. Typically, this (inverse) problem is solved in a two step procedure : (i) a smooth parametrization of the implied volatility surface; (ii) computation of the local volatility based on the resulting call price surface. Point (i), and in particular how to extrapolate the implied volatility in extreme strike regimes not seen in the market, has been the subject of numerous articles, starting with Lee (Math. Finance, 2004). In the present paper we give direct analytic insights into the asymptotic behavior of local volatility at extreme strikes.
We investigate the Longstaff--Schwartz algorithm for American option pricing assuming that both the number of regressors and the number of Monte Carlo paths tend to infinity. Our main results concern extensions, respectively, applications of results by Glasserman and Yu [Ann. Appl. Probab. 14 (2004) 2090--2119] and Stentoft [Manag. Sci. 50 (2004) 1193--1203] to several Lévy models, in particular the geometric Meixner model. A convenient setting to analyze this convergence problem is provided by the Lévy--Sheffer systems introduced by Schoutens and Teugels.
We generalize the Mittag-Leffler function by attaching an exponent to its Taylor coefficients. The main result is an asymptotic formula valid in sectors of the complex plane, which extends work by Le Roy [Bull. des sciences math. 24, 1900] and Evgrafov [Asimptoticheskie otsenki i tselye funktsii, 1979]. It is established by Plana's summation formula in conjunction with the saddle point method. As an application, we (re-)prove a non-holonomicity result about powers of the factorial sequence.
We consider the maximization of the long-term growth rate in the Black-Scholes model under proportional transaction costs as in Taksar, Klass and Assaf [Math. Oper. Res. 13, 1988]. Similarly as in Kallsen and Muhle-Karbe [Ann. Appl. Probab., 20, 2010] for optimal consumption over an infinite horizon, we tackle this problem by determining a shadow price, which is the solution of the dual problem. It can be calculated explicitly up to determining the root of a deterministic function. This in turn allows to explicitly compute fractional Taylor expansions, both for the no-trade region of the optimal strategy and for the optimal growth rate.
In the LIBOR market model, forward interest rates are log-normal under their respective forward measures. This note shows that their distributions under the other forward measures of the tenor structure have approximately log-normal tails.
We investigate the number of sets of words that can be formed from a finite alphabet, counted by the total length of the words in the set. An explicit expression for the counting sequence is derived from the generating function, and asymptotics for large alphabet respectively large total word length are discussed. Moreover, we derive a Gaussian limit law for the number of words in a random finite language.
Various sequences that possess explicit analytic expressions can be analysed asymptotically through integral representations due to Lindelöf, which belong to an attractive but somewhat neglected chapter of complex analysis. One of the outcomes of such analyses concerns the non-existence of linear recurrences with polynomial coefficients annihilating these sequences, and, accordingly, the non-existence of linear differential equations with polynomial coefficients annihilating their generating functions. In particular, the corresponding generating functions are transcendental. Asymptotic estimates of certain finite difference sequences come out as a byproduct of the Lindelöf approach.
We derive asymptotic bounds for the ordinary generating functions of several classical arithmetic functions, including the Moebius, Liouville, and von Mangoldt functions. The estimates result from the Korobov-Vinogradov zero-free region for the Riemann zeta-function, and are sharper than those obtained by Abelian theorems from bounds for the summatory functions.
We show that the closure of the value set of a real linear recurrence sequence is the union of a countable set and a finite collection of intervals. Conversely, any finite collection of closed intervals is the closure of the value set of some recurrence sequence.
We consider Kemp's q-analogue of the binomial distribution. Several convergence results involving the classical binomial, the Heine, the discrete normal, and the Poisson distribution are established. Some of them are q-analogues of classical convergence properties. Besides elementary estimates, we apply Mellin transform asymptotics.