I examine the relative information roles among West Texas Intermediate spot crude price and four futures contracts (F1 through F4) with different maturities. Using a cointegrated system with a non-unitary cointegrating vector, I address price discovery by investigating which price is more...

In this paper, we present advanced analytical formulas for SABR model option pricing. The first technical result consists of a new exact formula for the zero correlation case. This closed form is a simple 2D integration of elementary functions, particularly attractive for numerical...

We propose a new methodology for obtaining arbitrage free European option prices from a SABR-like parameterisation. The method consists of specifying the joint distribution of the volatility and underlying at a given expiry and requires the calculation of a simple one-dimensional numerical...

We suggest a new way of setting up multifactor models with hidden variables. We claim that the standard initial condition, which assigns some fixed value to the stochastic volatility subprocess, is illogical and greatly underestimates the effect of the hidden variable. For instance, a stochastic...

Stochastic volatility models are widely used in interest rate modeling to match the option smiles -- the two most popular are the Heston model and the SABR one. These have been incorporated into arbitrage-free term structure frameworks, Heston-LMM and SABR-LMM respectively.In this paper we...

In the current low-interest-rate environment, extending option models to negative rates has become an important issue. In our previous paper, we introduced the Free SABR model, which is a natural and an attractive extension to the classical SABR model. In spite of its advantages over the Shifted...

In this paper we examine the Heston model in the limit of infinitely fast mean-reversion for the stochastic volatility process (CIR). We show that, under an appropriate scaling of the model parameters, the two-factor stochastic volatility Heston model can be exactly mapped to a one-factor...

We develop an empirically highly accurate discrete-time daily stochastic volatility model that explicitly distinguishes between the jump and continuous time components of price movements using nonparametric realized variation and Bipower variation measures constructed from high-frequency...

In this report we study South African implied volatility from three different perspectives. Firstly, we conduct an analysis of the historical Top40 Index implied volatility surface dynamics. In particular, we consider the regime-dependence of atm volatility and skew levels and how this...

Contemporary actuarial and accounting practices (APN 110 in the South African context) require the use of market-consistent models for the valuation of embedded investment derivatives. These models have to be calibrated with accurate and up-to-date market data. Arguably, the most important...