This paper presents a simple approach to the pricing of options on spread and some arguments in favor of modelling the spread using its two components instead of the spread itself. We show that, even in a simple Gaussian setting, the spread should not be modelled directly, and that convergence...

We examine the effect of regularly scheduled macroeconomic announcements on the beliefs and preferences of participants in the U.S. Treasury market by comparing the option-implied state-price density (SPD) of bond prices shortly before and after the announcements. We find that the announcements...

This paper introduces a general framework for market models, named Market Model Approach, through the concept of admissible sets of for-ward swap rates spanning a given tenor structure. We relate this concept to results in graph theory by showing that a set is admissible if and only if the...

This paper provides a simple model of the rescheduling of debt following a sovereign default as a bond exchange. In case of default, the sovereign offers a new bond with lower coupon and principal.The debtors accept the offer if the value of the new bonds is higher than the proceedings of the...

The financial innovations of the late 1990s have led to the emergence of a significant number of new instruments, in particular in the market for hedging credit risk. This paper, based on an original dataset of transactions and quotes, looks at credit default swaps drawn on sovereign countries....

A few recent papers have derived estimates of the representative agent's risk aversion by comparing the statistical density of asset returns and the state-price density. The implied risk aversion estimates obtained in these studies are puzzling, exhibiting (i) pronounced U-shaped patterns (a...

I analyze the impact of the arrival of public information on the intraday trading of highly liquid stocks quoted on the Paris Bourse. Using the Reuters alert system, I gather a large sample of firm-specific news and analyze market behavior around news releases. I estimate the transaction cost...

Market prices of corporate bond spreads and of credit default swap (CDS) rates do not match each other. In this paper, we argue that the liquidity premium, the cheapest-to-deliver (CTD) option and actual market segmentation explain the pricing differences. Using the European transaction data...

This paper presents a dynamic model of takeovers based on the stock market valuations of merging firms. The model incorporates competition and imperfect information and determines the terms and timing of takeovers by solving option exercise games between bidding and target shareholders. The...

We develop a quantitative model to select hedge funds in the long-short equity sector. The selection strategy is verified on a survivorship-bias-free hedge fund database, from January 1990 to September 2002. We focus on the hedge funds acting exclusively in the U.S. market. We identify...