Crude oil derivatives form an important part of the global derivatives market. In this paper, we focus on Asian options which are favoured by risk managers being effective and cost-saving hedging instruments. The paper has both empirical and theoretical contributions: we conduct an empirical...

In this paper, we develop a new nonparametric approach for estimating the risk-neutral density of asset price and reformulate its estimation into a double-constrained optimization problem. We implement our approach in R and evaluate it using the S&P 500 market option prices from 1996 to 2015. A...

This paper develops a new top-down valuation framework that links the pricing of an option investment to its daily profit and loss attribution. The framework uses the Black-Merton-Scholes option pricing formula to attribute the short-term option investment risk to variations in the underlying...

In dynamic asset pricing models, when the model structure becomes complex and derivatives data are introduced in estimation, traditional Bayesian MCMC methods converge slowly, are difficult to design efficient proposals for parameters, and have large computational cost. We propose a two-stage...

We develop a simple robust link between deep out-of-the-money American put options on a company's stock and a credit insurance contract on the company's bond. We assume that the stock price stays above a barrier B before default but drops below a lower barrier $A$ after default, thus generating...

Loss functions are widely used to calibrate option pricing models to cross-sectional derivatives quotes. However, these approaches come with the disadvantage that estimated model parameters often appear to lack stability over time. On small option markets, this sign of over-fitting is typically...

We propose a novel method of estimating default probabilities using equity option data. The resulting default probabilities are highly correlated with estimates of default probabilities extracted from CDS spreads, which assume constant recovery rates. Additionally, the option implied default...

We develop a new option pricing framework that tightly integrates with how institutional investors manage options positions. The framework starts with the near-term dynamics of the implied volatility surface and derives no-arbitrage constraints on its current shape. Within this framework, we...

This paper examines the properties of the variance risk premium (VRP). We propose a flexible asset pricing model that captures co-jumps in prices and volatility, and self-exciting jump clustering. We estimate the model on equity returns and variance swap rates at different horizons. The total...

We estimate the default probabilities implicit in the transaction prices of a new type of call provision, the make whole call. The new issuance of make whole callable bonds has supplanted that of traditional callable bonds and noncallable bonds. Make whole callable bonds have strike prices that...