This paper develops a model of asymmetric information in which an investor has information regarding the future volatility of the price process of an asset but not the future asset price. It is shown that there exists an equilibrium in which the investor trades an option on the asset and...

An empirical examination of the pricing and hedging performance of a stochastic volatility (SV) model with closed form solution (Heston 1993) is provided for options on the Samp;P 500 index in which the unobservable time varying volatility is jointly estimated with the time invariant parameters...

This paper develops a closed-form option valuation formula for a spot asset whose variance follows a GARCH(p,q) process that can be correlated with the returns of the spot asset. It provides the first readily computed option formula for a random volatility model that can be estimated and...

Valuing financial securities often assumes that the contractual obligations of the security are going to be honored. However, frequently a party to a contract will default on its obligations. Because the contractual features of defaultable securities are usually complex and it is difficult to...

Many financial institutions hold derivative securities in their portfolios, and frequently these securities need to be hedged for extended periods of time. Failure to hedge properly can expose an institution to sudden swings in the values of derivatives, such as options, resulting from large,...

The popular practice of selling market volatility through selling straddles exposes traders and investors to substantial risk, especially in equity markets. The returns can be very lucrative, but the probability of large negative returns far exceeds the probability of large positive returns. In...

Because volatility of the underlying asset price is a critical factor affecting option prices and hedge ratios, the modeling of volatility and its dynamics is of vital interest to traders, investors, and risk managers. This modeling is a difficult task because the path of volatility during the...