A contract that gives the owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a security at a fixed price in the future.
2
votes
0answers
91 views
How to find the upper bound of a digital option given some market data?
Given the price of a call equals to 5 with Strike 100, please find the upper bound (sup) of the digital option with strike 105.
I am not sure about the solution, but I write the condition like this,
...
5
votes
1answer
276 views
What are VIX back-month futures based on?
The VIX calculation is a weighted average of prices for front-month out-the-money options on the S&P index.
So for VIX futures, this makes sense for the front month vix futures (being based on a ...
7
votes
1answer
223 views
When pricing options, what precision should I work with?
I'm wondering if there's any point at all in double-precision calculations, or whether it's ok to just do everything in single-precision, seeing how the difference on non-Tesla GPUs for single and ...
4
votes
1answer
352 views
Can American options with no dividends and zero risk-free rate be treated as European?
Let's say you've got American options on a future of a stock index. There are no dividends, and no risk-free rate either (assume $r=0$). Can these options then be treated as European from the ...
2
votes
0answers
108 views
What is the highest frequency greek for options on futures on bonds?
I'm considering exchange traded options of futures on bonds. Options on bond futures are usually American, thus the Black model is out of question. Which is the most imporatant Greek with respect to ...
4
votes
2answers
344 views
Does put-call parity hold for a compound option with underlying American option?
Say there is an American put option that expires $N$ months from today.
A call-on-put (CoP) option provides the owner the right to buy the American put option in exactly $M < N$ months (but no ...
5
votes
2answers
599 views
Constructing an approximation of the S&P 500 volatility smile with publicly available data
Besides of the VIX there is another vol datum publicly available for the S&P 500: the SKEW.
Do you know a procedure with which one can extrapolate other implied vols of the S&P 500 smile with ...
7
votes
2answers
665 views
How to calculate the most realistic historical option prices with additional publicly available parameters
This is a follow up question of this one.
My aim is to create the most realistic historical option prices possible with publicly available data. I want to do this for backtesting purposes.
The ...
3
votes
0answers
129 views
How companies choose earnings release dates, & effect on Implied Volatility
A company's earnings release date significantly affects weekly or monthly option prices/implied volatility. For companies that typically release earnings on the cusp of monthly options expiration, ...
19
votes
6answers
3k views
What type of investor is willing to be short gamma?
As far as I understand, most investors are willing to buy options (puts and calls) in order to limit their exposure to the market in case it moves against them. This is due to the fact that they are ...
3
votes
1answer
184 views
Eurodollar Options Stike Price > 100 bps
Looking at Eurodollar IR options market data coming down from CME, I can see a whole host of options where the strike is > 100 bps.
My understanding in this case is that puts will always be in the ...
5
votes
1answer
298 views
Modified bisection formula for deriving implied volatility for a dividend paying american option
I am trying to work out the formula for calculating the implied volatility of an american option on a stock paying dividends (discrete payments or annualized yield).
On page 171 of Haug
The ...
2
votes
2answers
500 views
How to calculate COMPOSITE underlying implied volatility from ATM (near month) option prices?
I am trying to calculate the implied volatility of an underlying given observed prices of call and puts. There are two scenarios:
The ATM strike is pinned by the market (i.e. underlying level == ...
-4
votes
1answer
136 views
Can you help identify/name this equity options strategy? [closed]
I am thinking of making such a trade:
BUY PUT $590 MARCH
WRITE PUT $600 APRIL
I have done some reading and it looks like a diagonal put spread, but the diagonal ...
8
votes
1answer
276 views
What drives changes in implied volatility on ETFs/ETNs?
I thought implied volatility, as well as the VIX, primarily increase due to increases in the underlying asset's volatility, as well as the options themselves being bid up because more people were ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
What causes the call and put volatility surface to differ?
I currently have a local volatility model that uses the standard Black Scholes assumptions.
When calculating the volatility surface, what causes the difference between the call volatility surface, ...
-7
votes
3answers
516 views
True or False? An option's price will always be greater than or equal to its intrinsic value
Since if the option's price is lower than its intrinsic value (eg. strike price - current stock price for puts), then an arbitrage opportunity arises from buying the option at bargain and then ...
7
votes
3answers
918 views
How to obtain true probabilities from Black-Scholes?
How to obtain true probabilities from Black-Scholes option pricing equation?
Suppose, that we know risk adjusted discount rate for the underlying asset (the drift term in the physical measure) and ...
0
votes
1answer
520 views
what is the best way to calculate the probability of an equity option ending in the money?
Given historical implied volatility and all other know variables (stock price, option strike price, option expiration date, dividend rate, interest rate) what is the best way to calculate the ...
1
vote
2answers
480 views
Can we replicate a call option without borrowing and make it cheaper in this way?
I learned how to price a European call option using this video lecture. The considered case is very simple. The call option gives the right to buy 100 Euros for 100 Dollars in one month from now. The ...
11
votes
2answers
423 views
What benchmark/index to use for backtesting a portfolio of stock options?
What benchmark should I use for backtesting a model for when I should buy an option of a particular stock? For equities, one could say their portfolio outperformed the S&P 500. I would like to ...
12
votes
2answers
436 views
Can you fully hedge an option in the presence of counterparty risk?
The derivation of the Black-Scholes model assumes no counterparty risk. Does the presence of counterparty risk invalidate the argument behind the model?
EDIT: The question is about options in ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
How does an option's time value depend on moneyness?
How does an option's time value (also known as extrinsic or instrumental value) depend on how far it is in the money or out of the money? In other words, how does the time value change as the ...
6
votes
1answer
245 views
How sensitive are vertical spreads to changes in implied volatility?
How sensitive are vertical spreads to changes in volatility / implied volatility in the money, at the money, and out of the money?
I'm thinking for 1 point spreads this would be very small / neutral ...
2
votes
4answers
383 views
how expected moves are priced into options
I understand that expected price changes of underlying assets are usually priced into options, but I don't understand how.
For instance, before upcoming earning reports the option values are inflated ...
3
votes
1answer
248 views
Which approach is better for modeling option exercise strategies, rational or behavioral?
This question is most relevant to the evaluation of embedded options, such as the refinancing option granted to borrowers in the mortgage and bank loan markets, or the call option present in some ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
Are there comprehensive analyses of theta decay in weekly options?
Are there comprehensive analyses of how much theta a weekly options loses in a day, per day?
I know what the shape of theta decay looks like, in theory, where the decay towards zero happens more ...
9
votes
3answers
812 views
How to solve for the implied stock lending rate given equity options prices?
When market makers price options on hard-to-borrow equities, they include the cost to borrow the underlying equity that their broker is going to charge them to sell the security short to hedge. I'm ...
5
votes
1answer
724 views
How would I value a perpetual bond with an embedded option?
I am trying to work out how to value the following transactions. It should be straight forward, since it breaks down into a series of well known instruments, yet I am not sure how to evaluate it:
...
7
votes
1answer
121 views
How to handle coupon payments when pricing a bond with an embedded option?
I'm using a binomial tree to price a bond that has an embedded call or put option.
On every node that has a coupon payment, do you include the coupon payment then max/min out the value, or do you ...
4
votes
1answer
344 views
How to apply quasi-Monte Carlo to path-dependent options?
Following up on my recent question on variance reduction in a Cox-Ingersoll-Ross Monte Carlo simulation, I would like to learn more about using a quasi-random sequence, such as Sobol or Niederreiter, ...
3
votes
0answers
81 views
Analysis of Unbalanced Covered Calls
Hello I am doing an analysis on covered calls with and extra amount of naked calls. Ignore the symbol and current macroeconomic events.
I couldn't find any reference to this strategy (unbalanced is ...
1
vote
2answers
123 views
Buying one company or index against another, is this readily possible with options, with an accurate return (also Alpha Indexes)
There's a relatively new product in the market / on the Nasdaq called Alpha Indexes. It lets one own a company -- e.g. Apple, GE, Google, etc -- as the difference between how that company does (the ...
4
votes
3answers
270 views
Given markets usually fall fast and rise slowly, are there trading mechanisms to take advantage of this?
Per a previous question on this topic -- markets generally fall fast and rise slowly: what options strategies or other strategies can one use to take advantage of this common occurrence?
0
votes
1answer
157 views
Does an option's price “ratio” with the underlying security price?
I'm trying to understand option pricing better.
Let's say security ABC is \$40, and a 38 PUT option with 40% implied volatility (and 90 days till expiration) is priced at X. If security ABC then ...
0
votes
0answers
95 views
Make assumption about future stock price: is the option with best return fairly clear? [closed]
If a security has price X now, and one makes the assumption it will have a greater price Y later, is the option (or option spread) that will provide the best return fairly clear, including the ...
3
votes
1answer
122 views
What are good conditions to roll a leap further out in time?
If you're hedging with a back month / leap option, what are good underlying / market conditions to move this option out even further in time?
For simplicity, let's say you own a call with 6 months ...
5
votes
2answers
248 views
What changes to put-call parity are necessary when evaluating american options on non-dividend paying assets?
If an underlying doesn't pay dividends (for our purpose defined as any distribution to the underlying's holder) directly or indirectly (e.g. options on futures) how does put-call parity change from ...
9
votes
2answers
229 views
When is it rational to exercise a bond option early?
Consider american options on interest rate futures such as the 10-year treasury note. When is early exercise optimal?
6
votes
1answer
243 views
Can options volume have an impact on the price of the underlying asset?
Can options volume affect the underlying asset price indirectly? I know that options buying/selling does not directly affect the price of the underlying asset (rather, the asset price contributes most ...
1
vote
1answer
263 views
Calculating Theta assuming other variables remain the same
Is there any way to calculate theta at X day in future based solely on knowing
1) Total Current Option Price
2) Days Till Expiration
How would this be done? Thank you
4
votes
1answer
173 views
Standard Deviations out the money where options will respond to underlying asset price changes
Is there an understood way of determining how far out the money an option can be, before it starts/stops responding to the underlying asset price changes?
I usually look at the greeks, gamma, delta, ...
2
votes
0answers
161 views
Tian third moment-matching tree with smoothing - implementation
I was wondering if someone has an implementation of the Tian third moment-matching tree (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1030143) with
smoothing in code (e.g. c++, vba, c#, etc.)?
...
5
votes
2answers
839 views
How to extrapolate implied volatility for out of the money options?
Estimation of model-free implied volatility is highly dependent upon the extrapolation procedure for non-traded options at extreme out-of-the-money points.
Jiang and Tian (2007) propose that the ...
2
votes
1answer
174 views
In a covered call strategy, should I hold the call or sell/roll if the delta becomes too small?
I am tweaking a covered call algorithm. The short leg consists of out of the money call options. The goal is to collect the tim premium, but an equally favorable circumstance is when the call ...
5
votes
2answers
223 views
How can one determine approximately what percentage of options trades are buyer-initiated vs. seller-initiated?
How can one determine approximately what percentage of options trades are buyer-initiated vs. seller-initiated? What measures of order flow are available specifically for options, preferably for ...
7
votes
2answers
186 views
What do we really mean by put-call ratio and how should it be expressed?
I need to calculate the put-call ratio for an American option. But I'm a complete naïf: I don't know how. I think I'd use the put open interest and the call open interest. I can imagine two ways to ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
Papers about backtesting option trading strategies
I am looking for all kinds of research concerning option trading strategies. With that I mean papers that publish results on different option trading strategies properly backtested with real-world ...
1
vote
0answers
229 views
Delta-Omega Hedging [closed]
I am currently trying to understand the in's and out's of options and more specifically hedging. I came across a document that was talking about Delta Hedging which is just making sure the delta of ...
2
votes
1answer
387 views
What exactly is the annualized forward premium?
A forward contract has a premium of $ 0$ because it is an obligation to buy or sell something in the future (hence there is more risk). Call and put options, on the other hand, have premiums of $C$ ...
