Theories deal with the world on its own terms, absolutely. Models are metaphors, relative descriptions of the object of their attention that compare it to something similar already better understood via theories. Models are reductions in dimensionality that always simplify and sweep dirt under...

We investigate the effect of including variance derivatives as calibration and hedging instruments for pricing and hedging exotic structures. This is studied empirically using market data for SPX and VIX derivatives applied in a stochastic volatility jump diffusion model

The liberalisation of energy markets entails the appearance of market risks which must be borne by market participants: producers, retailers, and final consumers. Some of these risks can be managed by participating in the forward markets and transferring it to other agents who are willing to...

The purpose of this paper is to give a comprehensive theoretical review devoted to asset pricing models by emphasizing static and dynamic versions in the line with their empirical investigations. A considerable amount of financial economics literature devoted to the concept of asset pricing and...

We employ a refined tree method to value employee stock options (ESOs) in the stochastic volatility model of Heston. Our setting covers risk-averse employees maximizing expected utility where we in particular focus on subjective option valuation, personal market beliefs and stochastic...

In this study, we use a factor model in order to decompose sovereign Credit Default Swaps (CDS) spreads into default, liquidity, systematic liquidity and correlation components. By calibrating the model to sovereign CDSs and bonds we are able to present a better decomposition and a more accurate...

We employ a large dataset of physical inventory data on 21 different commodities for the period 1993-2011 to empirically analyze the behaviour of commodity prices and their volatility as predicted by the theory of storage. We examine two main issues. First, we analyze the relationship between...

We examine the pricing of volatility risk in the cross-section of equity Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) stock returns over the 1996 – 2010 period. We consider both aggregate (systematic) volatility and firm-specific (idiosyncratic) volatility. In contrast to the negative and significant...

In this paper we investigate model-independent bounds for exotic options written on a risky asset using infinite-dimensional linear programming methods. Using arguments from the theory of Monge-Kantorovich mass-transport we establish a dual version of the problem that has a natural financial...

SABR stochastic volatility model is appealing for modeling smile and skew of option prices. Hagan, who first proposed this model, derived a closed form approximation for european options and showed that it provides consistent and stable hedges. Here I prove a new exact closed formula for the...