Small-Time Asymptotics of Option Prices and First Absolute Moments

We study the leading term in the small-time asymptotics of at-the-money call option prices when the stock price process $S$ follows a general martingale. This is equivalent to studying the first centered absolute moment of $S$. We show that if $S$ has a continuous part, the leading term is of order $\sqrt{T}$ in time $T$ and depends only on the initial value of the volatility. Furthermore, the term is linear in $T$ if and only if $S$ is of finite variation. The leading terms for pure-jump processes with infinite variation are between these two cases; we obtain their exact form for stable-like small jumps. To derive these results, we use a natural approximation of $S$ so that calculations are necessary only for the class of L\'evy processes.Comment: 22 pages; forthcoming in 'Journal of Applied Probability

General smile asymptotics with bounded maturity

We provide explicit conditions on the distribution of risk-neutral log-returns which yield sharp asymptotic estimates on the implied volatility smile. We allow for a variety of asymptotic regimes, including both small maturity (with arbitrary strike) and extreme strike (with arbitrary bounded maturity), extending previous work of Benaim and Friz [Math. Finance 19 (2009), 1-12]. We present applications to popular models, including Carr-Wu finite moment logstable model, Merton's jump diffusion model and Heston's model.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures. To appear on SIAM Journal on Financial Mathematic