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.
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 ...
4
votes
1answer
338 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 ...
5
votes
1answer
691 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:
...
4
votes
3answers
268 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
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
153 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 ...
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
111 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
237 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 ...
9
votes
2answers
228 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?
5
votes
2answers
242 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 ...
4
votes
4answers
668 views
How to price a calendar spread option?
How do you price calendar spread options, that is, options on the same underlying and the same strike but different times to maturity?
Clarification: I'm interested in the pricing of a a CSO ...
1
vote
1answer
258 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
6
votes
1answer
233 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
167 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, ...
7
votes
2answers
716 views
What does the VIX formula measure and how does it work?
I have read the CBOE's white paper on the VIX and a lot of other things, but I need to honestly say, I don't really get it, or I am missing something important.
In semi-layman's terms, is the VIX ...
2
votes
0answers
160 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
795 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
172 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 ...
11
votes
2answers
409 views
Can you replicate an option on an arbitrary basket of stocks?
Since a market index is nothing more than a basket of stocks, you can create your own index by putting together stocks of your choice. The only difference is that you can trade options on major ...
5
votes
2answers
219 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
1answer
120 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 ...
7
votes
2answers
182 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 ...
15
votes
5answers
2k views
Skew arbitrage: How can you realize the skewness of the underlying?
It's not clear to me how to realize skewness. In other words, how do you implement skew arbitrage? There seems to be no well-known recipe like in volatility arbitrage.
Volatility arbitrage (or ...
8
votes
2answers
594 views
How does volatility affect the price of binary options?
In theory, how should volatility affect the price of a binary option? A typical out the money option has more extrinsic value and therefore volatility plays a much more noticeable factor. Now let's ...
1
vote
0answers
221 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
191 views
What is more appropriate: the EMA of the option price or the EMA of the underlying?
I'm progressing, all too slowly, on a site that aims to show real-time numbers for options that are listed on the CBOE. Most of the instantaneous numbers are all set. Now I'm going to pay attention to ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
Is there an all Java options-pricing library (preferably open source) besides jquantlib?
I am looking for an all-java implementation of black scholes, preferably open source. I found jquantlib and quantlib (C++). Any other recommendations?
The jquantlib site seems to be down.
I'd prefer ...
8
votes
1answer
178 views
How should FX options be priced when a currency is artificially capped?
The question is inspired by yesterday's (06/09/11) historic announcement by the Swiss National Bank that it would impose a ceiling on the franc of 1.20 against the euro.
I would like to know if there ...
14
votes
3answers
1k views
Why hold options when you can dynamically replicate their payoff?
When holding vanilla options, you can cancel out, theoretically, all risk with dynamic (delta) hedging. Then you earn the "risk free rate of return".
Why would you make such a portfolio when you can ...
9
votes
3answers
780 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
566 views
Can one use options on Treasury futures to hedge a portfolio?
Can one use options on Treasury bond futures to hedge a typical fixed income portfolio? If so, how can one estimate the duration for an option on a Treasury futures contract, and taking this a step ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
using quantlib function in my c++ program
I want to include the QuantLib function for option greeks calculations in my own C++ code.
My question is: can I just include those functions? I don't want to use the rest of their stuff.
I obviously ...
8
votes
1answer
830 views
Is QuantLib more trouble than it's worth?
I'm just starting to work with QuantLib and wonder if I'm going down a very wrong path.
I'm working on a site that presents the visitor with a table of streamed real-time options data, including ...
5
votes
1answer
3k views
What is a Heat Rate Option?
I tried a search with google but I can't find a clear definition of what a Heat Rate Option is. I would appreciate if someone could explain to me what this type of option is. My understanding is that ...
-4
votes
1answer
208 views
What is the net premium of a bull spread option? [closed]
Suppose we have the following information for the index $S$:
current price = $ \$1000$
risk free rate $4 \%$ convertible semiannualy
What is the net premium to create a $ \$ 1000- \$ 1050$ bull ...
4
votes
2answers
306 views
What does put-call parity imply about option premiums?
We know that $$C-P = PV(F_{0,T}-K)$$
When we create a synthetic forward, we buy call and sell a put at the same strike price $K$. When we buy the call why do we assume the premium is positive? When ...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
How to derive the implied probability distribution from B-S volatilities?
The general problem I have is visualization of the implied distribution of returns of a currency pair.
I usually use QQplots for historical returns, so for example versus the normal distribution:
...
2
votes
1answer
375 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 $C$ ...
5
votes
1answer
338 views
How to calculate equivalent futures position?
Let's say I have the following two positions:
Buy ATM SPX call, expires in 1 month
Sell ATM SPX put, expires in 1 month
This creates a synthetic futures position. How do I calculate how many ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
How to replicate a digital call option
Call Option S=100 K=100 Payoff=1 (option is not available) How can i replicate this (payoff) with calls and puts with strike prices with multiples of 5$
Thanks for help
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 ...
5
votes
1answer
148 views
Quantifying Hedging Error Due To Expiration Day Range?
Let's say I have two call option liabilities that I want to statically hedge with a single call option.
Liabilities:
Liab_Call_1:
Strike: 100
Notional: 1000
DaysToExpiration: 20
Liab_Call_2:
...
7
votes
1answer
657 views
How should I estimate the implied volatility skew term when calculating the skew-adjusted delta?
I'm trying to come up with the implied volatility skew adjusted delta for SPY options. I'm working with the following formula:
Skew Adjusted Delta = Black Scholes Delta + Vega * Vol Skew Slope.
I ...
5
votes
1answer
174 views
Modeling liquidity effect on option prices
What are practically useful ways of modelling the effect of liquidity on options?
12
votes
6answers
665 views
Setting the r in put-call parity?
Put-call parity is given by $C + Ke^{-r(T-t)} = P + S$.
The variables $C$, $P$ and $S$ are directly observable in the market place. $T-t$ follows by the contract specification.
The variable $r$ is ...
8
votes
1answer
327 views
What are important model and assumption-free no-arbitrage conditions in options trading?
In the paper "Why We Have Never Used the Black-Scholes-Merton Option Pricing Formula" (Espen Gaarder Haug, Nassim Nicholas Taleb) a couple of model-free arbitrage conditions are mentioned which limits ...
15
votes
6answers
5k views
What are some useful approximations to the Black-Scholes formula?
Let the Black-Scholes formula be defined as the function $f(S, X, T, r, v)$.
I'm curious about functions that are computationally simpler than the Black-Scholes that yields results that approximate ...
