Double Kernel estimation of sensitivities

This paper adresses the general issue of estimating the sensitivity of the expectation of a random variable with respect to a parameter characterizing its evolution. In finance for example, the sensitivities of the price of a contingent claim are called the Greeks. A new way of estimating the Greeks has been recently introduced by Elie, Fermanian and Touzi through a randomization of the parameter of interest combined with non parametric estimation techniques. This paper studies another type of those estimators whose interest is to be closely related to the score function, which is well known to be the optimal Greek weight. This estimator relies on the use of two distinct kernel functions and the main interest of this paper is to provide its asymptotic properties. Under a little more stringent condition, its rate of convergence equals the one of those introduced by Elie, Fermanian and Touzi and outperforms the finite differences estimator. In addition to the technical interest of the proofs, this result is very encouraging in the dynamic of creating new type of estimators for sensitivities

Double Kernel estimation of sensitivities

This paper adresses the general issue of estimating the sensitivity of the expectation of a random variable with respect to a parameter characterizing its evolution. In finance for example, the sensitivities of the price of a contingent claim are called the Greeks. A new way of estimating the Greeks has been recently introduced by Elie, Fermanian and Touzi through a randomization of the parameter of interest combined with non parametric estimation techniques. This paper studies another type of those estimators whose interest is to be closely related to the score function, which is well known to be the optimal Greek weight. This estimator relies on the use of two distinct kernel functions and the main interest of this paper is to provide its asymptotic properties. Under a little more stringent condition, its rate of convergence equals the one of those introduced by Elie, Fermanian and Touzi and outperforms the finite differences estimator. In addition to the technical interest of the proofs, this result is very encouraging in the dynamic of creating new type of estimators for sensitivities.Sensitivity estimation, Monte Carlo simulation, Non-parametric regression.

Contracting theory with competitive interacting agents

In a framework close to the one developed by Holmstr\"om and Milgrom [44], we study the optimal contracting scheme between a Principal and several Agents. Each hired Agent is in charge of one project, and can make efforts towards managing his own project, as well as impact (positively or negatively) the projects of the other Agents. Considering economic Agents in competition with relative performance concerns, we derive the optimal contracts in both first best and moral hazard settings. The enhanced resolution methodology relies heavily on the connection between Nash equilibria and multidimensional quadratic BSDEs. The optimal contracts are linear and each agent is paid a fixed proportion of the terminal value of all the projects of the firm. Besides, each Agent receives his reservation utility, and those with high competitive appetence are assigned less volatile projects, and shall even receive help from the other Agents. From the principal point of view, it is in the firm interest in our model to strongly diversify the competitive appetence of the Agents.Comment: 36 page

BSDEs with weak terminal condition

We introduce a new class of Backward Stochastic Differential Equations in which the $T$-terminal value $Y_{T}$ of the solution $(Y,Z)$ is not fixed as a random variable, but only satisfies a weak constraint of the form $E[\Psi(Y_{T})]\ge m$, for some (possibly random) non-decreasing map $\Psi$ and some threshold $m$. We name them \textit{BSDEs with weak terminal condition} and obtain a representation of the minimal time $t$-values $Y_{t}$ such that $(Y,Z)$ is a supersolution of the BSDE with weak terminal condition. It provides a non-Markovian BSDE formulation of the PDE characterization obtained for Markovian stochastic target problems under controlled loss in Bouchard, Elie and Touzi \cite{BoElTo09}. We then study the main properties of this minimal value. In particular, we analyze its continuity and convexity with respect to the $m$-parameter appearing in the weak terminal condition, and show how it can be related to a dual optimal control problem in Meyer form. These last properties generalize to a non Markovian framework previous results on quantile hedging and hedging under loss constraints obtained in F\"{o}llmer and Leukert \cite{FoLe99,FoLe00}, and in Bouchard, Elie and Touzi \cite{BoElTo09}

Discrete-time approximation of multidimensional BSDEs with oblique reflections

In this paper, we study the discrete-time approximation of multidimensional reflected BSDEs of the type of those presented by Hu and Tang [Probab. Theory Related Fields 147 (2010) 89-121] and generalized by Hamad\`ene and Zhang [Stochastic Process. Appl. 120 (2010) 403-426]. In comparison to the penalizing approach followed by Hamad\`{e}ne and Jeanblanc [Math. Oper. Res. 32 (2007) 182-192] or Elie and Kharroubi [Statist. Probab. Lett. 80 (2010) 1388-1396], we study a more natural scheme based on oblique projections. We provide a control on the error of the algorithm by introducing and studying the notion of multidimensional discretely reflected BSDE. In the particular case where the driver does not depend on the variable $Z$, the error on the grid points is of order $1/2-\varepsilon$, $\varepsilon>0$.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AAP771 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Kernel estimation of Greek weights by parameter randomization

A Greek weight associated to a parameterized random variable $Z(\lambda)$ is a random variable $\pi$ such that $\nabla_{\lambda}E[\phi(Z(\lambda))]=E[\phi(Z(\lambda))\pi]$ for any function $\phi$. The importance of the set of Greek weights for the purpose of Monte Carlo simulations has been highlighted in the recent literature. Our main concern in this paper is to devise methods which produce the optimal weight, which is well known to be given by the score, in a general context where the density of $Z(\lambda)$ is not explicitly known. To do this, we randomize the parameter $\lambda$ by introducing an a priori distribution, and we use classical kernel estimation techniques in order to estimate the score function. By an integration by parts argument on the limit of this first kernel estimator, we define an alternative simpler kernel-based estimator which turns out to be closely related to the partial gradient of the kernel-based estimator of $\mathbb{E}[\phi(Z(\lambda))]$. Similarly to the finite differences technique, and unlike the so-called Malliavin method, our estimators are biased, but their implementation does not require any advanced mathematical calculation. We provide an asymptotic analysis of the mean squared error of these estimators, as well as their asymptotic distributions. For a discontinuous payoff function, the kernel estimator outperforms the classical finite differences one in terms of the asymptotic rate of convergence. This result is confirmed by our numerical experiments.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/105051607000000186 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Adding constraints to BSDEs with Jumps: an alternative to multidimensional reflections

This paper is dedicated to the analysis of backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) with jumps, subject to an additional global constraint involving all the components of the solution. We study the existence and uniqueness of a minimal solution for these so-called constrained BSDEs with jumps via a penalization procedure. This new type of BSDE offers a nice and practical unifying framework to the notions of constrained BSDEs presented in [19] and BSDEs with constrained jumps introduced in [14]. More remarkably, the solution of a multidimensional Brownian reflected BSDE studied in [11] and [13] can also be represented via a well chosen one-dimensional constrained BSDE with jumps.This last result is very promising from a numerical point of view for the resolution of high dimensional optimal switching problems and more generally for systems of coupled variational inequalitie