Efficient markets should guarantee the existence of zero spreads for total return swaps. However, real estate markets have recorded values that are significantly different from zero in both directions. Possible explanations might suggest non-rational behaviour by inexperienced market players or...

Even in the simple case that two price processes follow correlated geometric Brownian motions with constant volatility no analytic formula for the price of a standard European spread option has been derived, except when the strike is zero in which case the option becomes an exchange option. This...