Forecasting and Risk Management Techniques for Electricity Markets

This book focuses on the recent development of forecasting and risk management techniques for electricity markets. In addition, we discuss research on new trading platforms and environments using blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) markets and computer agents. The book consists of two parts. The first part is entitled “Forecasting and Risk Management Techniques” and contains five chapters related to weather and electricity derivatives, and load and price forecasting for supporting electricity trading. The second part is entitled “Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Electricity Trading System and Strategy” and contains the following five chapters related to the feasibility and enhancement of P2P energy trading from various aspects

High dimensional American options

Pricing single asset American options is a hard problem in mathematical finance. There are no closed form solutions available (apart from in the case of the perpetual option), so many approximations and numerical techniques have been developed. Pricing multi–asset (high dimensional) American options is still more difficult. We extend the method proposed theoretically by Glasserman and Yu (2004) by employing regression basis functions that are martingales under geometric Brownian motion. This results in more accurate Monte Carlo simulations, and computationally cheap lower and upper bounds to the American option price. We have implemented these models in QuantLib, the open–source derivatives pricing library. The code for many of the models discussed in this thesis can be downloaded from quantlib.org as part of a practical pricing and risk management library. We propose a new type of multi–asset option, the “Radial Barrier Option” for which we find analytic solutions. This is a barrier style option that pays out when a barrier, which is a function of the assets and their correlations, is hit. This is a useful benchmark test case for Monte Carlo simulations and may be of use in approximating multi–asset American options. We use Laplace transforms in this analysis which can be applied to give analytic results for the hitting times of Bessel processes. We investigate the asymptotic solution of the single asset Black–Scholes–Merton equation in the case of low volatility. This analysis explains the success of some American option approximations, and has the potential to be extended to basket options

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2016

Proceedings of the 10th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 14, 2016 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia

Boundary-safe PINNs extension: Application to non-linear parabolic PDEs in counterparty credit risk

[Abstract]: The goal of this work is to develop a novel strategy for the treatment of the boundary conditions for multi-dimension nonlinear parabolic PDEs. The proposed methodology allows to get rid of the heuristic choice of the weights for the different addends that appear in the loss function related to the training process. It is based on defining the losses associated to the boundaries by means of the PDEs that arise from substituting the related conditions into the model equation itself. The approach is applied to challenging problems appearing in quantitative finance, namely, in counterparty credit risk management. Further, automatic differentiation is employed to obtain accurate approximation of the partial derivatives, the so called Greeks, that are very relevant quantities in the field.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/33Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/01A.L and J.A.G.R. acknowledge the support received by the Spanish MINECO under research project number PDI2019-108584RB-I00, and by the Xunta de Galicia, Spain under grant ED431C 2018/33. All the authors thank to the support received from the CITIC research center, funded by Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund - Galicia Program, Spain ), by grant ED431G 2019/01

Fourier Neural Network Approximation of Transition Densities in Finance

This paper introduces FourNet, a novel single-layer feed-forward neural network (FFNN) method designed to approximate transition densities for which closed-form expressions of their Fourier transforms, i.e. characteristic functions, are available. A unique feature of FourNet lies in its use of a Gaussian activation function, enabling exact Fourier and inverse Fourier transformations and drawing analogies with the Gaussian mixture model. We mathematically establish FourNet's capacity to approximate transition densities in the $L_2$-sense arbitrarily well with finite number of neurons. The parameters of FourNet are learned by minimizing a loss function derived from the known characteristic function and the Fourier transform of the FFNN, complemented by a strategic sampling approach to enhance training. Through a rigorous and comprehensive error analysis, we derive informative bounds for the $L_2$ estimation error and the potential (pointwise) loss of nonnegativity in the estimated densities. FourNet's accuracy and versatility are demonstrated through a wide range of dynamics common in quantitative finance, including L\'{e}vy processes and the Heston stochastic volatility models-including those augmented with the self-exciting Queue-Hawkes jump process.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figure

Risks and Prospects of Smart Electric Grids Systems measured with Real Options

fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Essays on Portfolio Risk Management and Weather Derivatives

Denne avhandlingen handler om utvikling og praktisk implementering av risikostyringsmetoder for investeringsporteføljer, energiporteføljer, og håndtering av vær- og forurensningsrisiko. Avhandlingen inkluderer tre vitenskapelige artikler som hver tar for seg ulike aspekter av finansiell risikostyring. Den første fokuserer på metoder for aktivaallokering når det eksisterer asymmetrisk avhengighet mellom avkastningene for eiendelene i en investeringsportefølje. Den andre artikkelen omhandler energiprisrisikostyring, og introduserer et åpen kildekodeverktøy for energiporteføljeforvaltning som er utviklet som en del av doktorgradsprosjektet. Den siste artikkelen presenterer et teoretisk rammeverk for håndtering av forurensningsrisiko ved hjelp av finansielle derivatkontrakter, som bygger på den eksisterende teorien om værderivater. Disse arbeidene bidrar alle til det overordnede temaet for avhandlingen, som er utvikling av risikostyringsmetoder for ulike typer porteføljer og utforskingen av rollen til finansielle derivater i håndtering av risiko knyttet til markedspriser, vær og forurensning. For å sette bidragene inn i en teoretisk kontekst har vi inkludert et kort kapittel som presenterer alternative metoder for avhengighetsmodellering, og hvordan disse kan utnyttes når man forvalter investeringsporteføljer. Ett av disse målene, lokal gaussisk korrelasjon, brukes til å utvide det klassiske mean-variance-rammeverket for aktivaallokering i den første artikkelen. Deretter følger et kort introduksjonskapittel til spot- og forwardmarkeder for energi. Hovedfokuset her er råvareprisrisiko, og hvordan denne kan håndteres med finansielle derivatkontrakter. Vi demonstrerer hvordan forvaltning av energiporteføljer kan gjennomføres med vårt åpen kildekodeverktøy ved bruk av data fra det europeiske kraftmarkedet. Til slutt inkluderes et kapittel om værderivater. Dette inneholder en introduksjon til værrelatert risiko, en kort introduksjon til værmarkedet, vanlige kontraktstyper og alternative metoder for prising. For å sikre reproduserbarhet har vi også lagt til et kapittel om programkode. Her finnes lenker til Git-repositorier med alle data og R-kode for å gjennomføre analysene som presenteres i avhandlingen.This thesis is concerned with the development and practical implementation of risk management methods for investment portfolios, energy portfolios, and weather and pollution risk. The thesis includes three scientific papers that each address different aspects of financial risk management. The first paper focuses on portfolio allocation in the presence of asymmetric dependence between asset returns. The second paper examines energy price risk management, and introduces an open source toolkit for energy portfolio management which has been developed as a part of the PhD project. The final paper present a theoretical framework for managing pollution risk using financial derivatives contracts, which builds upon the existing theory of weather derivatives. These papers all contribute to the overall theme, which is the development of risk management methods for various types of portfolios and the exploration of the role of financial derivatives in managing risks related to market prices, weather and pollution. In order to provide a theoretical context, we have included a brief chapter exploring alternative methods for dependence modelling and how these may be utilized when managing investment portfolios. One of these measures, the local Gaussian correlation, is used to extend the classical mean-variance framework for asset allocation in the first paper. Thereafter, a short introduction to spot and forward energy markets is provided. The primary focus here is commodity market price risk, and how this can be managed with financial derivatives contracts. We demonstrate how portfolio management may be performed with our open source toolkit using European energy market data. Finally, we include a chapter on weather derivatives. This contains a introduction to weather related risk, a brief introduction to the weather markets, frequently used contract types and pricing methods. To ensure reproducibility, we have also added a chapter on computer code, where the interested reader may find links to Git repositories with all data and the R code needed to run the analysis presented in the thesis.Doktorgradsavhandlin

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2017

Proceedings of the 11th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 20, 2017 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia. 211 pp

Structural identification: Opportunities and challenges

Some of the significant opportunities and facing successful implementation of the structural identification (St-Id) in civil infrastructure are discussed. The greatest challenges in successful applications of St-Id have emerged as systems integration requirements, requiring mastery in management, modeling and simulation, experimental arts, information technology, and decision-making. Formulating effective policies, strategies, and project-specific designs for improving their performance as systems cannot be expected unless it is understood how infrastructures perform as complex systems. The St-Id may be a means of establishing a quantitative and mechanistic baseline characterization for a newly constructed system similar to a birth certificate. Some major infrastructure owners and consultants have developed an appreciation of the value of St-Id in relation to retrofit design and historic preservation