Option pricing with Legendre polynomials

Here we develop an option pricing method based on Legendre series expansion of the density function. The key insight, relying on the close relation of the characteristic function with the series coefficients, allows to recover the density function rapidly and accurately. Based on this representation for the density function, approximations formulas for pricing European type options are derived. To obtain highly accurate result for European call option, the implementation involves integrating high degree Legendre polynomials against exponential function. Some numerical instabilities arise because of serious subtractive cancellations in its formulation (96) in Proposition A.1. To overcome this difficulty, we rewrite this quantity as solution of a second-order linear difference equation and solve it using a robust and stable algorithm from Olver. Derivation of the pricing method has been accompanied by an error analysis. Errors bounds have been derived and the study relies more on smoothness properties which are not provided by the payoff functions, but rather by the density function of the underlying stochastic models. This is particularly relevant for options pricing where the payoffs of the contract are generally not smooth functions. The numerical experiments on a class of models widely used in quantitative finance show exponential convergence

Calibrating Option Pricing Models with Heuristics

Calibrating option pricing models to market prices often leads to optimisation problems to which standard methods (like such based on gradients) cannot be applied. We investigate two models: Heston’s stochastic volatility model, and Bates’s model which also includes jumps. We discuss how to price options under these models, and how to calibrate the parameters of the models with heuristic techniques.

Improving the Quality of the Input in the Term Structure Consistent Models

In finance, getting an accurate estimation of the term structure of interest rates is essential because this information is often used as input by other pricing financial models. In this paper, we point out the importance of selecting a suitable estimation of the term structure of interest rates. To show this fact, we use the Spanish Bond Market to estimate the initial interest rate and forward curves for one day, by using both McCulloch (1975) cubic polynomial splines, and Legendre's polynomials (Morini, 1998). We use these curves as input for pricing pure discount bonds with the Ho and Lee (1986) and Hull and White (1990) models. Then, we find the important result that using an inadequate interest rate curve affects dramatically the behaviour of the dynamic term structure models and, consequently, the estimation of the asset pricing modelsTerm structure of interest rates, dynamic consistent models

Pricing European-type, early-exercise and discrete barrier options using an algorithm for the convolution of Legendre series

This paper applies an algorithm for the convolution of compactly supported Legendre series (the CONLeg method) (cf. Hale and Townsend, An algorithm for the convolution of Legendre series. SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 2014, 36, A1207–A1220), to pricing European-type, early-exercise and discrete-monitored barrier options under a Lévy process. The paper employs Chebfun (cf. Trefethen et al., Chebfun Guide, 2014 (Pafnuty Publications: Oxford), Available online at: http://www.chebfun.org/) in computational finance and provides a quadrature-free approach by applying the Chebyshev series in financial modelling. A significant advantage of using the CONLeg method is to formulate option pricing and option Greek curves rather than individual prices/values. Moreover, the CONLeg method can yield high accuracy in option pricing when the risk-free smooth probability density function (PDF) is smooth/non-smooth. Finally, we show that our method can accurately price options deep in/out of the money and with very long/short maturities. Compared with existing techniques, the CONLeg method performs either favourably or comparably in numerical experiments

On the robustness of least-squares Monte Carlo (LSM) for pricing American derivatives

This paper analyses the robustness of Least-Squares Monte Carlo, a technique recently proposed by Longstaff and Schwartz (2001) for pricing American options. This method is based on least-squares regressions in which the explanatory variables are certain polynomial functions. We analyze the impact of different basis functions on option prices. Numerical results for American put options provide evidence that a) this approach is very robust to the choice of different alternative polynomials and b) few basis functions are required. However, these conclusions are not reached when analyzing more complex derivatives.Least-Squares Monte Carlo, option pricing, American options

Canonical Least-Squares Monte Carlo Valuation of American Options: Convergence and Empirical Pricing Analysis

The paper by Liu (2010) introduces a method termed the canonical least-squares Monte Carlo (CLM) which combines a martingale-constrained entropy model and a least-squares Monte Carlo algorithm to price American options. In this paper, we first provide the convergence results of CLM and numerically examine the convergence properties. Then, the comparative analysis is empirically conducted using a large sample of the S&P 100 Index (OEX) puts and IBM puts. The results on the convergence show that choosing the shifted Legendre polynomials with four regressors is more appropriate considering the pricing accuracy and the computational cost. With this choice, CLM method is empirically demonstrated to be superior to the benchmark methods of binominal tree and finite difference with historical volatilities