Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Outline

The Art of Modeling Financial Options: Monte Carlo Simulation

Abstract

Modeling is important because scientists investigate the world around us by building models that simulate real-world problems. Modeling is neither science nor mathematics; it is the craft that builds bridges between the two. Progress in modeling dynamics has always been closely associated with advances in computing. Monte Carlo simulation/modeling or probability simulation is a technique frequently used in the financial markets to understand complex financial instruments. It is used to scrutinise the impact of risk and uncertainty in financial and other forecasting models. It is very useful when complex financial instruments need to be priced. Exotic options are listed on the JSE on its Can-Do platform. Most listed exotic options are marked-to-model and the JSE needs accurate values at the end of every day. Monte Carlo methods in a local volatility framework are implemented. This paper discusses how Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is implemented when exotic options like Barriers are valued. We further summarise the historical development in modern computing and the development of the Monte Carlo method.

References (62)

  1. Andersen, L., & Andreasen, J. (2000). Jump diffusion processees: Volatility smile fitting and numerical methods for option pricing. Review of Derivatives Research, 4 , 231-261.
  2. Arnold, S. (1990). Mathematical Statistics. Prentice-Hall.
  3. Ayache, E., Henrotte, P., Nassar, S., & Wang, X. (2004). Can anyone solve the smile problem? Wilmott Magazine, January, 78-96.
  4. Black, F. (1988). The holes in black-scholes. Risk , 1 , 30-32.
  5. Black, F., & Scholes, M. (1973). The pricing of options and corporate liabilities. The Journal of Political Economy, 81 , 637-654.
  6. Boas, M. (1983). Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences. (2nd ed.). Wiley.
  7. Bouzoubaa, M., & Osserein, A. (2010). Exotic Options and Hybrids: A Guide to Structuring, Pricing and Trading. Wiley Finance.
  8. Boyle, P. (1977). Options: A monte carlo approach. Journal of Financial Economics, 4 , 323-338.
  9. Boyle, P., Broadie, M., & Glasserman, P. (1997). Monte carlo methods for security pricing. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control , 21 , 1267-1321.
  10. Brigo, D., & Mercurio, F. (2001). Interest Rate Models: Theory and Practice. Springer.
  11. Broadie, M., & Glasserman, P. (1997). Pricing american-style securities using simu- lation. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control , 21 , 1323-1352.
  12. Broadie, M., Glassermann, P., & Kou, S. (1997). A continuity correction for discrete barrier options. Mathematical Finance, 7 , 325-348.
  13. Clark, I. (2011). Foreign exchange option pricing. Wiley Finance.
  14. Copeland, B. (2008). The modern history of computing. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall . URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/ entries/computing-history/.
  15. Dasgupta, S. (2014). It Began with Babbage: The Genesis of Computer Science. Oxford University Press.
  16. Derman, E., & Kani, I. (1994). Riding on a smile. RISK Magazine, 1 , 32-39.
  17. Duffie, D. (1996). Dynamic Assep Pricing Theory. Princeton University Press.
  18. Dupire, B. (1993). Pricing and hedging with smiles. Paribas Capital Markets Swaps and Options Research Team, (pp. 1-9).
  19. Dupire, B. (1994). Pricing with a smile. RISK Magazine, 1 , 18-20.
  20. Dyson, G. (2012). Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. Vintage.
  21. Engelmann, B., Fengler, M., & Schwendner, P. (2009). Better than its reputation: An empirical hedging analysis of the local volatility model for barrier options. Journal of Risk , 12 , 53-77.
  22. Glassermann, P. (2004). Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering. Springer.
  23. Gyöngy, I. (1986). Mimicking the one-dimensional marginal distributions of processes having an Itô differential. Probability Theory and Related Fields, 71 , 501-516.
  24. Haigh, T. (2015). The tears of Donald Knuth. Communications of the ACM , 58 , 40-44.
  25. Haigh, T., Priestley, M., & Rope, C. (2014). Engineering "the miracle of the ENIAC": Implementing the modern code paradigm. IEEE Annals of the History of Comput- ing, April-June, 1058-6180.
  26. Harras, G. (2012). On the emergence of volatility, return autocorrelation and bub- bles in Equity markets. Ph.D. thesis ETH Zurich. http://www.er.ethz.ch/ publications/GeorgesHarras_PhD-Thesis.pdf.
  27. Hassani, S. (1991). Foundations of Mathematical Physics. Prentice-Hall.
  28. Haug, E. (2007). The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas. McGraw-Hill.
  29. Hull, J. (2012). Options, Futures, and other Derivatives. Pearson.
  30. Istrail, S., & Marcus, S. (2013). Alan Turing and John von Neumann -their brains and their computers. Membrane Computing: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 7752 , 26-35.
  31. Jäckel, P. (2002). Monte Carlo Methods in Finance. John Wiley & Sons.
  32. Klebaner, F. (2005). Introduction to Stochastic Calculus With Applications, Second Edition. London, UK: Imperial College Press.
  33. Kotzé, A. (2003). Black-scholes or black holes? The South African Financial Markets Journal , 2 , 8-12.
  34. Kotzé, A., & Oosthuizen, R. (2013). JSE exotic can-do options: determining initial margins. The South African Financial Markets Journal , 17 . URL: http://www. financialmarketsjournal.co.za/17thedition/jseequity.htm.
  35. Kotzé, A., Oosthuizen, R., & Pindza, E. (2015). Implied and local volatility surfaces for south african index and foreign exchange options. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 8 , 43-82. URL: http://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/8/1/43.
  36. Lagnado, R., & Osher, S. (1997). Reconciling differences. RISK Magazine, 1 , 79-83.
  37. Linetsky, V. (1998). The path integral approach to financial modeling and options pricing. Computational Economics, 11 , 129-163.
  38. Longstaff, F., & Schwartz, E. (1991). Valuing american options by simulation: A simple least-squares approach. The Review of Financial Studies, 14 , 113-147.
  39. McCauley, J. (2013). Stochastic Calculus and Differential Equations for Physics and Finance. Cambridge.
  40. McLeish, D. (2005). Monte Carlo Simulation & Finance. Wiley Finance.
  41. Merton, R. (1973). Theory of rational option pricing. Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, 4 , 141-183.
  42. Metropolis, N., & Ulam, S. (1949). The Monte Carlo method. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 44 , 335-341.
  43. Morrison, F. (2008). The Art of Modeling Dynamic Systems: Forecasting for Chaos, Randomness and Determinism. Dover Publications.
  44. Narasihan, T. N. (1999). Fourier's heat conduction equation: History, influence, and connections. Reviews of Geophysics, 37 , 151-172.
  45. Park, S., & Miller, K. (1988). Random number generators: Good ones are hard to find. Communications of the ACM , 31 , 1192-1201.
  46. Rebonato, R. (2004). Volatility and Correlation: the Perfect Hedger and the Fox,2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons.
  47. Reif, F. (2008). Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics. Springer Texts in Statistics. Waveland Pr Inc.
  48. Rich, D. (1994). The mathematical foundations of barrier option-pricing theory. Advances in Futures and Options Research, 7 , 267-312.
  49. Robert, C., & Casella, G. (2004). Monte Carlo Statistical Methods. Springer Texts in Statistics. Springer.
  50. Rubinstein, M. (1994). Implied binomial trees. Journal of Finance, 49 , 771-818.
  51. Rubinstein, M., & Reiner, E. (1991). Breaking down barriers. Risk , September .
  52. Sornette, D. (2014). Physics and financial economics (1776-2014): Puzzles, Ising and agent-based models. arXiv [q-fin.GN] , 1404.0243 . URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/ 1404.0243.
  53. Spiegel, M., Schiller, J., & Srinivasan, R. (2000). Probability and Statistics. Schaum's Outlines (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
  54. Steinhauser, M. (2013). Computer Simulation in Physics and Engineering. De Greyter.
  55. Swade, D. (2005). The construction of charles babbage's difference engine no. 2. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, July-September , 70-88.
  56. Tan, C. (2010). Demystifying Exotic Products: Interest Rates, Equities and Foreign Exchange. John Wiley & Sons.
  57. Turing, A. (1936). On computable numbers, with an application to the Entschei- dungsproblem. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, 42 , 230-265.
  58. Weber, N. (2011). Implementing Models of Financial Derivatives: Object Oriented Applications with VBA. Wiley Finance.
  59. de Weert, F. (2008). Exotic Options Trading. Wiley Finance.
  60. Wilmott, P. (1998). Derivatives. John Wiley and Sons.
  61. Wilmott, P. (2000). Quantitative Finance. John Wiley & Sons.
  62. Zhang, P. (1998). Exotic Options: A guide to second generation options. (2nd ed.). World Scientific.