International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance

In this paper, we will propose a practical method for improving the performance of a maximal predictability portfolio (MPP) model proposed by Lo and MacKinlay and later extended by the authors. We will employ an alternative version of MPP using absolute deviation instead of variance as a measure of fitting and apply a dynamic strategy for choosing the set of factors which fits best to the market data. It will be shown that this approach leads to a significantly better performance than the standard MPP and the index.

We use the theory of large deviations to study the pricing of investment-grade tranches of synthetic CDO's. In this paper, we consider a simplified model which will allow us to introduce some of the concepts and calculations.

In this manuscript, we develop a multilevel framework for the pricing of a European call option based on multiresolution techniques. In this approach, the Black–Scholes equation is transformed via finite differences into a system of linear equations, where the form of the implicit operator is used to construct coarse grid projectors. The reduction of the computational resource is achieved by truncating small wavelet coefficients. However, because traditional wavelets fail to prevent oscillations from developing in the Greeks, a multilevel approach is used to retain smoothness in Gamma by incorporating derivative information into the multiresolution analysis.

Time-changed Brownian motions are extensively applied as mathematical models for asset returns in Finance. Time change is interpreted as a switch from calendar time to trade-related business time. Time-changed Brownian motions can be generated by infinitely divisible normal mixtures. The standard multivariate mixtures assume a common mixing variable. This corresponds to a multidimensional return process with a unique change of time for all assets under exam. The economic counterpart is uniqueness of trade or business time, which is not in line with empirical evidence. In this paper we propose a new multivariate definition of normal mixtures with a flexible dependence structure, based on the economic intuition of both a common and an idiosyncratic component of business time. We analyze both the distribution and the related process. We use the above construction to introduce a multivariate generalized hyperbolic process with generalized hyperbolic margins. We conclude with a stock market example to show the ease of calibration of the model.

After Geske (1979), compound options — options on options — have been employed in many fields in which real options are applied. The formula for a compound option is convenient to use in real project investment, but it has one drawback — the assets that underlie the compound options are usually non-tradable. This article addresses this issue and proposes two new compound option pricing formulae to overcome this drawback.

We consider the classical problem of maximizing expected utility from terminal wealth. With the help of a martingale criterion explicit solutions are derived for power utility in a number of affine stochastic volatility models.

In this paper we develop an efficient tree approach for option pricing when the underlying asset price follows a regime-switching model. The tree grows only linearly as the number of time steps increases. Thus it enables us to use large number of time steps to compute accurate prices for both European and American options. We present conditions that guarantee the positivity of branch probabilities. We numerically test the sensitivity of option prices to the choice of a key parameter for tree construction. As an interesting application, we develop a regime-switching model to approximate the Heston's stochastic volatility model and then employ the tree approach to approximate the option prices. Numerical results are provided and compared.