Classical quantitative finance models such as the Geometric Brownian Motion or its later extensions such as local or stochastic volatility models do not make sense when seen from a physics-based perspective, as they are all equivalent to a negative mass oscillator with a noise. This paper...

The optimal portfolio of a utility-maximizing investor trading in the S&P 500 index and cash, subject to proportional transaction costs, becomes stochastically dominated when overlaid with a zero-net-cost portfolio of S&P 500 options bought at their ask and written at their bid price in most...

We present the non-Gaussian extension of the traditional Merton framework, which takes into account slowly relaxing fluctuations of the volatility of the firm's market value of financial assets. The minimal version of the model depends on the Tsallis entropic parameter q and the generalized...

Stronger volatility skew and smile effects accompanied by a risk-neutral distribution that is closer to the Normal seem unconventional at first thought. But that is what we find during the financial crisis, with the unconventionally high risk-neutral volatility level playing a major role....

We analyze whether the diversification discount is driven by the book value bias of corporate debt. Book values of debt may be a more downward biased proxy of the market value of debt for diversified firms, relative to undiversified firms, as diversification leads to lower firm risk. Thus,...

We show that the slight possibility of a macroeconomic disaster of moderate magnitude can explain important features across credit, option, and equity markets. Our consumption-based equilibrium model captures the empirical level and volatility of credit spreads, generates a flexible credit term...