Observing prices of European put and call options, we calibrate exponential Lévy models nonparametrically. We discuss the implementation of the spectral estimation procedures for Lévy models of finite jump activity as well as for self-decomposable Lévy models and improve these methods....

In this paper we follow a different approach by taking a first step towards an option valuation model which does not explicitly make use of unobservable State variables. Instead of using a stochastic variance variable directly, we assume that the variance of stock returns is determined by the...

A contingent claims valuation model which allows to highlight the implications of program trading in spot markets for the pricing of European-style foreign currency options and for the volatility strike structure implicit in these contracts is devoloped. The curvature of the volatility strike...

In this paper we compare the price of an option with one year maturity of the German stock index DAX for several volatility models including long memory and leverage effects. We compute the price by applying a present value scheme as well as the Black-Scholes and Hull-White formulas which...