Ratios that indicate the statistical significance of a fund’s alpha typically appraise its performance. A growing literature suggests that even in the absence of any ability to predict returns, holding options positions on the benchmark assets or trading frequently can significantly enhance...

In single-obligor default risk modelling, using a background filtration in conjunction with a suitable embedding hypothesis (generally known as H-hypothesis or immersion property) has proven a very successful tool to separate the actual default event from the model for the default arrival...

In a complete financial market every contingent claim can be hedged perfectly. In an incomplete market it is possible to stay on the safe side by superhedging. But such strategies may require a large amount of initial capital. Here we study the question what an investor can do who is unwilling...

An investor faced with a contingent claim may eliminate risk by (super-)hedging in a financial market. As this is often quite expensive, we study partial hedges, which require less capital and reduce the risk. In a previous paper we determined quantile hedges which succeed with maximal...

Die Stabilität der Europäischen Währungsunion ist durch die derzeit angespannte Haushaltslage und den hohen Verschuldungsgrad einiger Mitgliedstaaten in Frage gestellt. Diese Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkungen verschiedener (Krisen-)Szenarien auf das Portfolio eines durchschnittlichen...

We consider modeling errors in the hedging of a portfolio composed from BBB-rated bonds. By doing this, we open a new perspective to the debate on the relationship between corporate bonds and CDS spreads. We find that in ordinary times the added value of indexlinked credit derivatives is very...

Many industries are exposed to weather risk which they can transfer on financial markets via weather derivatives. Equilibrium models based on partial market clearing became a useful tool for pricing such kind of financial instruments. In a multi-period equilibrium pricing model agents rebalance...

Transaction-cost models in continuous-time markets are considered. Given that investors decide to buy or sell at certain time instants, we study the existence of trading strategies that reach a certain final wealth level in continuous-time markets, under the assumption that transaction costs,...

Taking a portfolio perspective on option pricing and hedging, we show that within the standard Black-Scholes-Merton framework large portfolios of options can be hedged without risk in discrete time. The nature of the hedge portfolio in the limit of large portfolio size is substantially different...

Stocks are exposed to the risk of sudden downward jumps. Additionally, a crash in one stock (or index) can increase the risk of crashes in other stocks (or indices). Our paper explicitly takes this contagion risk into account and studies its impact on the portfolio decision of a CRRA investor...