Under very general conditions, the total quadratic variation of a jump-diffusion process can be decomposed into diffusive volatility and squared jump variation. We use this result to develop a new option valuation model in which the underlying asset price exhibits volatility and jump intensity...

When the pricing kernel is U-shaped, then expected returns of claims with payout on the upside are negative for strikes beyond a threshold, determined by the slope of the U-shaped kernel in its increasing region, and have negative partial derivative with respect to strike in the increasing...

Empirical evidence shows that, in equity options markets, the slope of the skew is largely independent of the volatility level. Single-factor stochastic volatility models are not flexible enough to account for the stochastic behavior of the skew. On the other hand, multifactor stochastic...

To bridge the gap between the output of theoretical option pricing models and observed option prices on exchanges, it is necessary to price the volatility risk inherent in financial markets. Non zero market risk premia have been found in previous financial literature through an exploration of...

With the success of variable annuities, insurance companies are piling up large risks in terms of both equity and fixed income assets. These risks should be properly modeled as the resulting dynamic hedging strategy is very sensitive to the modeling assumptions. The current literature has been...

Replacing equity return (as in the equity risk premium) with returns on an arbitrary contingent claim, we obtain a new class of economic risk premiums to impose upon candidate models. These risk premiums reflect the distance between the physical and risk-neutral moments for asset returns, can be...

Finance researchers keep producing increasingly complex and computationally-intensive models of stock returns. Separately, professional analysts forecast stock returns daily for their clients. Are the sophisticated methods of researchers achieving better forecasts or are we better off relying on...

Index option pricing on world market indices are investigated using Lévy processes with no positive jumps. Economically this is motivated by the possible absence of longer horizon short positions while mathematically we are able to evaluate for such processes the probability of a Rally Before a...

In this financial engineering research, we study the behaviour of an option premium of a call/put option which is embedded in a typical fixed coupon bond with finite maturity. The contribution of the research is the conclusion about the dynamics of premium changes; represented by direction and...

Today there are many equity derivatives that are traded on organized and over-the-counter markets. The models that allow market participants to value them and manage the associated risks on a daily basis are numerous. The idea of this study is, for vanilla equity options, to understand the Black...