arXiv subjects

Stephan Eckstein

Publications and source records attributed to Stephan Eckstein.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

MinMax Methods for Optimal Transport and Beyond: Regularization, Approximation and Numerics

We study MinMax solution methods for a general class of optimization problems related to (and including) optimal transport. Theoretically, the focus is on fitting a large class of problems into a single MinMax framework and generalizing regularization techniques known from classical optimal transport. We show that regularization techniques justify the utilization of neural networks to solve such problems by proving approximation theorems and illustrating fundamental issues if no regularization is used. We further study the relation to the literature on generative adversarial nets, and analyze which algorithmic techniques used therein are particularly suitable to the class of problems studied in this paper. Several numerical experiments showcase the generality of the setting and highlight which theoretical insights are most beneficial in practice.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

Robust pricing and hedging of options on multiple assets and its numerics

We consider robust pricing and hedging for options written on multiple assets given market option prices for the individual assets. The resulting problem is called the multi-marginal martingale optimal transport problem. We propose two numerical methods to solve such problems: using discretisation and linear programming applied to the primal side and using penalisation and deep neural networks optimisation applied to the dual side. We prove convergence for our methods and compare their numerical performance. We show how adding further information about call option prices at additional maturities can be incorporated and narrows down the no-arbitrage pricing bounds. Finally, we obtain structural results for the case of the payoff given by a weighted sum of covariances between the assets.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

Lipschitz neural networks are dense in the set of all Lipschitz functions

This note shows that, for a fixed Lipschitz constant $L > 0$, one layer neural networks that are $L$-Lipschitz are dense in the set of all $L$-Lipschitz functions with respect to the uniform norm on bounded sets.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2020

Robust risk aggregation with neural networks

We consider settings in which the distribution of a multivariate random variable is partly ambiguous. We assume the ambiguity lies on the level of the dependence structure, and that the marginal distributions are known. Furthermore, a current best guess for the distribution, called reference measure, is available. We work with the set of distributions that are both close to the given reference measure in a transportation distance (e.g. the Wasserstein distance), and additionally have the correct marginal structure. The goal is to find upper and lower bounds for integrals of interest with respect to distributions in this set. The described problem appears naturally in the context of risk aggregation. When aggregating different risks, the marginal distributions of these risks are known and the task is to quantify their joint effect on a given system. This is typically done by applying a meaningful risk measure to the sum of the individual risks. For this purpose, the stochastic interdependencies between the risks need to be specified. In practice the models of this dependence structure are however subject to relatively high model ambiguity. The contribution of this paper is twofold: Firstly, we derive a dual representation of the considered problem and prove that strong duality holds. Secondly, we propose a generally applicable and computationally feasible method, which relies on neural networks, in order to numerically solve the derived dual problem. The latter method is tested on a number of toy examples, before it is finally applied to perform robust risk aggregation in a real world instance.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2019

Computation of optimal transport and related hedging problems via penalization and neural networks

This paper presents a widely applicable approach to solving (multi-marginal, martingale) optimal transport and related problems via neural networks. The core idea is to penalize the optimization problem in its dual formulation and reduce it to a finite dimensional one which corresponds to optimizing a neural network with smooth objective function. We present numerical examples from optimal transport, martingale optimal transport, portfolio optimization under uncertainty and generative adversarial networks that showcase the generality and effectiveness of the approach.

math.OC↗

arXiv2018

Marginal and dependence uncertainty: bounds, optimal transport, and sharpness

Motivated by applications in model-free finance and quantitative risk management, we consider Fréchet classes of multivariate distribution functions where additional information on the joint distribution is assumed, while uncertainty in the marginals is also possible. We derive optimal transport duality results for these Fréchet classes that extend previous results in the related literature. These proofs are based on representation results for increasing convex functionals and the explicit computation of the conjugates. We show that the dual transport problem admits an explicit solution for the function $f=1_B$, where $B$ is a rectangular subset of $\mathbb R^d$, and provide an intuitive geometric interpretation of this result. The improved Fréchet--Hoeffding bounds provide ad-hoc upper bounds for these Fréchet classes. We show that the improved Fréchet--Hoeffding bounds are pointwise sharp for these classes in the presence of uncertainty in the marginals, while a counterexample yields that they are not pointwise sharp in the absence of uncertainty in the marginals, even in dimension 2. The latter result sheds new light on the improved Fréchet--Hoeffding bounds, since Tankov [30] has showed that, under certain conditions, these bounds are sharp in dimension 2.

math.PR↗

arXiv2017

Extended Laplace Principle for Empirical Measures of a Markov Chain

We consider discrete time Markov chains with Polish state space. The large deviations principle for empirical measures of a Markov chain can equivalently be stated in Laplace principle form, which builds on the convex dual pair of relative entropy (or Kullback-Leibler divergence) and cumulant generating functional $f\mapsto \ln \int \exp(f)$. Following the approach by Lacker in the i.i.d. case, we generalize the Laplace principle to a greater class of convex dual pairs. We present in depth one application arising from this extension, which includes large deviations results and a weak law of large numbers for certain robust Markov chains - similar to Markov set chains - where we model robustness via the first Wasserstein distance. The setting and proof of the extended Laplace principle are based on the weak convergence approach to large deviations by Dupuis and Ellis.

math.PR↗