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arXiv2009

Monte Carlo sampling given a Characteristic Function: Quantile Mechanics in Momentum Space

In mathematical finance and other applications of stochastic processes, it is frequently the case that the characteristic function may be known but explicit forms for density functions are not available. The simulation of any distribution is greatly facilitated by a knowledge of the quantile function, by which uniformly distributed samples may be converted to samples of the given distribution. This article analyzes the calculation of a quantile function direct from the characteristic function of a probability distribution, without explicit knowledge of the density. We form a non-linear integro-differential equation that despite its complexity admits an iterative solution for the power series of the quantile about the median. We give some examples including tail models and show how to generate C-code for examples.

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arXiv2009

A new approach for scenario generation in Risk management

We provide a new dynamic approach to scenario generation for the purposes of risk management in the banking industry. We connect ideas from conventional techniques -- like historical and Monte Carlo simulation -- and we come up with a hybrid method that shares the advantages of standard procedures but eliminates several of their drawbacks. Instead of considering the static problem of constructing one or ten day ahead distributions for vectors of risk factors, we embed the problem into a dynamic framework, where any time horizon can be consistently simulated. Additionally, we use standard models from mathematical finance for each risk factor, whence bridging the worlds of trading and risk management. Our approach is based on stochastic differential equations (SDEs), like the HJM-equation or the Black-Scholes equation, governing the time evolution of risk factors, on an empirical calibration method to the market for the chosen SDEs, and on an Euler scheme (or high-order schemes) for the numerical evaluation of the respective SDEs. The empirical calibration procedure presented in this paper can be seen as the SDE-counterpart of the so called Filtered Historical Simulation method; the behavior of volatility stems in our case out of the assumptions on the underlying SDEs. Furthermore, we are able to easily incorporate "middle-size" and "large-size" events within our framework always making a precise distinction between the information obtained from the market and the one coming from the necessary a-priori intuition of the risk manager. Results of one concrete implementation are provided.

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arXiv2009

Computing Tails of Compound Distributions Using Direct Numerical Integration

An efficient adaptive direct numerical integration (DNI) algorithm is developed for computing high quantiles and conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) of compound distributions using characteristic functions. A key innovation of the numerical scheme is an effective tail integration approximation that reduces the truncation errors significantly with little extra effort. High precision results of the 0.999 quantile and CVaR were obtained for compound losses with heavy tails and a very wide range of loss frequencies using the DNI, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Monte Carlo (MC) methods. These results, particularly relevant to operational risk modelling, can serve as benchmarks for comparing different numerical methods. We found that the adaptive DNI can achieve high accuracy with relatively coarse grids. It is much faster than MC and competitive with FFT in computing high quantiles and CVaR of compound distributions in the case of moderate to high frequencies and heavy tails.

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arXiv2009

Vanna-Volga methods applied to FX derivatives : from theory to market practice

We study Vanna-Volga methods which are used to price first generation exotic options in the Foreign Exchange market. They are based on a rescaling of the correction to the Black-Scholes price through the so-called `probability of survival' and the `expected first exit time'. Since the methods rely heavily on the appropriate treatment of market data we also provide a summary of the relevant conventions. We offer a justification of the core technique for the case of vanilla options and show how to adapt it to the pricing of exotic options. Our results are compared to a large collection of indicative market prices and to more sophisticated models. Finally we propose a simple calibration method based on one-touch prices that allows the Vanna-Volga results to be in line with our pool of market data.

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arXiv2009

GARCH options via local risk minimization

We apply a quadratic hedging scheme developed by Foellmer, Schweizer, and Sondermann to European contingent products whose underlying asset is modeled using a GARCH process and show that local risk-minimizing strategies with respect to the physical measure do exist, even though an associated minimal martingale measure is only available in the presence of bounded innovations. More importantly, since those local risk-minimizing strategies are in general convoluted and difficult to evaluate, we introduce Girsanov-like risk-neutral measures for the log-prices that yield more tractable and useful results. Regarding this subject, we focus on GARCH time series models with Gaussian innovations and we provide specific sufficient conditions that have to do with the finiteness of the kurtosis, under which those martingale measures are appropriate in the context of quadratic hedging. When this equivalent martingale measure is adapted to the price representation we are able to recover out of it the classical pricing formulas of Duan and Heston-Nandi, as well as hedging schemes that improve the performance of those proposed in the literature.

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arXiv2009

Optimisation of Stochastic Programming by Hidden Markov Modelling based Scenario Generation

This paper formed part of a preliminary research report for a risk consultancy and academic research. Stochastic Programming models provide a powerful paradigm for decision making under uncertainty. In these models the uncertainties are represented by a discrete scenario tree and the quality of the solutions obtained is governed by the quality of the scenarios generated. We propose a new technique to generate scenarios based on Gaussian Mixture Hidden Markov Modelling. We show that our approach explicitly captures important time varying dynamics of stochastic processes (such as autoregression and jumps) as well as non-Gaussian distribution characteristics (such as skewness and kurtosis). Our scenario generation method enables richer robustness and scenario analysis through exploiting the tractable properties of Markov models and Gaussian mixture distributions. We demonstrate the benefits of our scenario generation method by conducting numerical experiments on FTSE-100 data.

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arXiv2009

Addressing the bias in Monte Carlo pricing of multi-asset options with multiple barriers through discrete sampling

An efficient conditioning technique, the so-called Brownian Bridge simulation, has previously been applied to eliminate pricing bias that arises in applications of the standard discrete-time Monte Carlo method to evaluate options written on the continuous-time extrema of an underlying asset. It is based on the simple and easy to implement analytic formulas for the distribution of one-dimensional Brownian Bridge extremes. This paper extends the technique to the valuation of multi-asset options with knock-out barriers imposed for all or some of the underlying assets. We derive formula for the unbiased option price estimator based on the joint distribution of the multi-dimensional Brownian Bridge dependent extrema. As analytic formulas are not available for the joint distribution in general, we develop upper and lower biased option price estimators based on the distribution of independent extrema and the Fr\'echet lower and upper bounds for the unknown distribution. All estimators are simple and easy to implement. They can always be used to bind the true value by a confidence interval. Numerical tests indicate that our biased estimators converge rapidly to the true option value as the number of time steps for the asset path simulation increases in comparison to the estimator based on the standard discrete-time method. The convergence rate depends on the correlation and barrier structures of the underlying assets.

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arXiv2009

Model uncertainty in claims reserving within Tweedie's compound Poisson models

In this paper we examine the claims reserving problem using Tweedie's compound Poisson model. We develop the maximum likelihood and Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation approaches to fit the model and then compare the estimated models under different scenarios. The key point we demonstrate relates to the comparison of reserving quantities with and without model uncertainty incorporated into the prediction. We consider both the model selection problem and the model averaging solutions for the predicted reserves. As a part of this process we also consider the sub problem of variable selection to obtain a parsimonious representation of the model being fitted.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2009

Regime Switching Volatility Calibration by the Baum-Welch Method

Regime switching volatility models provide a tractable method of modelling stochastic volatility. Currently the most popular method of regime switching calibration is the Hamilton filter. We propose using the Baum-Welch algorithm, an established technique from Engineering, to calibrate regime switching models instead. We demonstrate the Baum-Welch algorithm and discuss the significant advantages that it provides compared to the Hamilton filter. We provide computational results of calibrating the Baum-Welch filter to S&P 500 data and validate its performance in and out of sample.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2009

Market viability via absence of arbitrage of the first kind

In a semimartingale financial market model, it is shown that there is equivalence between absence of arbitrage of the first kind (a weak viability condition) and the existence of a strictly positive process that acts as a local martingale deflator on nonnegative wealth processes.

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arXiv2009

Addressing the Impact of Data Truncation and Parameter Uncertainty on Operational Risk Estimates

Typically, operational risk losses are reported above some threshold. This paper studies the impact of ignoring data truncation on the 0.999 quantile of the annual loss distribution for operational risk for a broad range of distribution parameters and truncation levels. Loss frequency and severity are modelled by the Poisson and Lognormal distributions respectively. Two cases of ignoring data truncation are studied: the "naive model" - fitting a Lognormal distribution with support on a positive semi-infinite interval, and "shifted model" - fitting a Lognormal distribution shifted to the truncation level. For all practical cases, the "naive model" leads to underestimation (that can be severe) of the 0.999 quantile. The "shifted model" overestimates the 0.999 quantile except some cases of small underestimation for large truncation levels. Conservative estimation of capital charge is usually acceptable and the use of the "shifted model" can be justified while the "naive model" should not be allowed. However, if parameter uncertainty is taken into account (in practice it is often ignored), the "shifted model" can lead to considerable underestimation of capital charge. This is demonstrated with a practical example.

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arXiv2009

Dynamic operational risk: modeling dependence and combining different sources of information

In this paper, we model dependence between operational risks by allowing risk profiles to evolve stochastically in time and to be dependent. This allows for a flexible correlation structure where the dependence between frequencies of different risk categories and between severities of different risk categories as well as within risk categories can be modeled. The model is estimated using Bayesian inference methodology, allowing for combination of internal data, external data and expert opinion in the estimation procedure. We use a specialized Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation methodology known as Slice sampling to obtain samples from the resulting posterior distribution and estimate the model parameters.

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arXiv2009

Modeling operational risk data reported above a time-varying threshold

Typically, operational risk losses are reported above a threshold. Fitting data reported above a constant threshold is a well known and studied problem. However, in practice, the losses are scaled for business and other factors before the fitting and thus the threshold is varying across the scaled data sample. A reporting level may also change when a bank changes its reporting policy. We present both the maximum likelihood and Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches to fitting the frequency and severity loss distributions using data in the case of a time varying threshold. Estimation of the annual loss distribution accounting for parameter uncertainty is also presented.

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arXiv2009

Weakly nonlinear analysis of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation arising from pension savings management

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze solutions to a fully nonlinear parabolic equation arising from the problem of optimal portfolio construction. We show how the problem of optimal stock to bond proportion in the management of pension fund portfolio can be formulated in terms of the solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. We analyze the solution from qualitative as well as quantitative point of view. We construct useful bounds of solution yielding estimates for the optimal value of the stock to bond proportion in the portfolio. Furthermore we construct asymptotic expansions of a solution in terms of a small model parameter. Finally, we perform sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution with respect to various model parameters and compare analytical results of this paper with the corresponding known results arising from time-discrete dynamic stochastic optimization model.

q-fin.PM↗

arXiv2009

Variance-covariance based risk allocation in credit portfolios: analytical approximation

High precision analytical approximation is proposed for variance-covariance based risk allocation in a portfolio of risky assets. A general case of a single-period multi-factor Merton-type model with stochastic recovery is considered. The accuracy of the approximation as well as its speed are compared to and shown to be superior to those of Monte Carlo simulation.

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arXiv2009

Spectral methods for volatility derivatives

In the first quarter of 2006 Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) introduced, as one of the listed products, options on its implied volatility index (VIX). This created the challenge of developing a pricing framework that can simultaneously handle European options, forward-starts, options on the realized variance and options on the VIX. In this paper we propose a new approach to this problem using spectral methods. We use a regime switching model with jumps and local volatility defined in \cite{FXrev} and calibrate it to the European options on the S&P 500 for a broad range of strikes and maturities. The main idea of this paper is to "lift" (i.e. extend) the generator of the underlying process to keep track of the relevant path information, namely the realized variance. The lifted generator is too large a matrix to be diagonalized numerically. We overcome this difficulty by applying a new semi-analytic algorithm for block-diagonalization. This method enables us to evaluate numerically the joint distribution between the underlying stock price and the realized variance, which in turn gives us a way of pricing consistently European options, general accrued variance payoffs and forward-starting and VIX options.

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arXiv2009

Volatility derivatives in market models with jumps

It is well documented that a model for the underlying asset price process that seeks to capture the behaviour of the market prices of vanilla options needs to exhibit both diffusion and jump features. In this paper we assume that the asset price process $S$ is Markov with cadlag paths and propose a scheme for computing the law of the realized variance of the log returns accrued while the asset was trading in a prespecified corridor. We thus obtain an algorithm for pricing and hedging volatility derivatives and derivatives on the corridor-realized variance in such a market. The class of models under consideration is large, as it encompasses jump-diffusion and Levy processes. We prove the weak convergence of the scheme and describe in detail the implementation of the algorithm in the characteristic cases where $S$ is a CEV process (continuous trajectories), a variance gamma process (jumps with independent increments) or an infinite activity jump-diffusion (discontinuous trajectories with dependent increments).

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arXiv2009

Indifference price with general semimartingales

For utility functions $u$ finite valued on $\mathbb{R}$, we prove a duality formula for utility maximization with random endowment in general semimartingale incomplete markets. The main novelty of the paper is that possibly non locally bounded semimartingale price processes are allowed. Following Biagini and Frittelli \cite{BiaFri06}, the analysis is based on the duality between the Orlicz spaces $(L^{\widehat{u}}, (L^{\widehat{u}})^*)$ naturally associated to the utility function. This formulation enables several key properties of the indifference price $\pi(B)$ of a claim $B$ satisfying conditions weaker than those assumed in literature. In particular, the indifference price functional $\pi$ turns out to be, apart from a sign, a convex risk measure on the Orlicz space $L^{\widehat{u}}$.

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