# All Questions

4k views

### Can the Hurst exponent be greater than one?

Can the Hurst exponent be greater than one? Does it mean that the time series follows a random walk or that it's not stationary?
123 views

### Why model the variance-covariance matrix as an inverse-Wishart distribution in bayesian portfolio analysis?

I am following Risk and asset allocation (Attilio Meucci,2007). I must say I am enjoying this reading quite a lot so I hope nobody takes my question as a critique on the text. When we are introduced ...
48 views

### Interpretation of Correlation Matrix

I have past data which is in vector form. The information shows the probabilities of a AAA rated company to migrate to another credit rating. So for example, (x1, x2, x3) has the probabilities of ...
46 views

### Convolution of inverse gaussian and power law distributions

I am trying to understand how the first passage time density of Brownian motion with drift is modified by the presence of waiting times that are distributed as a power law In other words, what is the ...
166 views

### Why do we need $dS_t=r S_tdt+\sigma S_tdW_t^Q$?

Suppose $S_t$ is the stock price and follows the dynamics $$dS_t=\mu S_tdt+\sigma S_tdW_t$$. According to Girsanov, we can apply change of measure and obtain $dS_t=r S_tdt+\sigma S_tdW_t^Q$, this ...
65 views

### A few basic questions on bonds, yield and derivatives?

I am fairly new to these subjects and direly in need of some basic answers about yields, bonds and derivatives. Please forgive my lack of financial knowledge and poor English. 1- What is the ...
165 views

### Why is the vega of an at the money option so insensitive to movements in volatility? I.e, why do ATM options have such little Vomma?

I've been trying to understand why at the money options have very little vomma. I was reading and came across a graph that showed vega as volatility changes and I couldn't grasp how the relationships ...
71 views

### European vanilla call/put option, when volatility increases, how will gamma changes?

according to the BS formula, $\gamma = \frac{N'(d_1)}{S_0\sigma\sqrt{T}}$, gamma will decrease when volatility increase. How does it intuitively make sense? rather than from the formula.
40 views

### Cheapness indicator for Convertibles Bonds

What indicator (or combination of those) could be used to roughly estimate the cheapness of a convertible bonds ? Like the price/earning ratio for equities. Thanks, Max.
58 views

What does it mean to implement a delta-neutral strategy for straddle ? A straddle consists in buying a call and a put simultaneously, at the same date, on same underlying, with same maturity and ...
15 views

### Real time data map about the amount of a currency that are held in the world ?

Where can I see in real time data about the amount of a currency that is held in central banks (and maybe other significant places) ? A map would be great. I would like to know if there is an ...
171 views

### Which sports are generally the best for trading on betting exchanges for a profit?

I am looking at trading bets on tennis, football and horse racing in particular as these appear to have the most liquidity. How much background research and how much trial and error is generally ...
318 views

### Pricing an american style option on a bond future

what is the good way to pricing american option on bond future? From bonk fixed income securities 3rd by Tuckman, I understand how to pricing European option on bond future, but I still have no clue ...
130 views

### Constructing Volatility Smile from American Options

My question is about best practices for reconstructing volatility smiles for a fixed tenor from American option data. For simplicity/liquidity, I am currently considering options on SPY. I am ...
4k 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, ...
59 views

### Is it possible for two securities to have the same first 8 characters of a cusip, but differ in the check sum?

CUSIP is a 9 character long identifier. The last digit is a check sum checking the first 8 previous characters. This seems to me that it is not possible for two securities to have the same 8 ...
190 views

### Bloomberg equity option volatility data

Using the Bloomberg open API, I am trying to program a C++ script that is able to download option volatility data from Bloomberg. I currently do not have access to Bloomberg, but in the coming week I ...
177 views

### Option Prices under the Heston Stochastic Volatility Model

I was wondering if anyone has come across a more straightforward derivation of the semi-closed form solution for the price of a european call under the Heston model than the one proposed by Heston ...
97 views

### What constitutes an “odd lot” in corporate bonds trades?

This is important in price discovery and pricing of bonds based on trades. "Odd" lots are traded at lower prices than "round" lots. However I wasn't able to find a definition of "odd" lot anywhere. ...
99 views

### Black-Scholes: If exercise probability is 0.5, should $D_2$=0?

Let's say we have option strike price equal to current stock price. And we have zero risk-free rate. In this case I assume that probability of exercise is 0.5 because chances that price will go up or ...
100 views

### Which volatility to use to price options on futures contract?

I have some questions regarding pricing futures options and I just want to be sure that my thoughts are correct. I am trying to price options on futures for american & european style. In the ...
24 views

### calculating share price from dividend discount model

I am trying to calculate dividend as per dividend discount model for titan company limited (india). Calculations: Cost of Equity: Now, As I have done calculation as shown above (formula on top ...
37 views

### Stock prices and probability

Lets say that the current price of a security is £245 , $\mu =5%$ and $\sigma=32%$ Assume that the natural logarithm of $\frac{S_{t +\delta t}}{S_t}$ is approximately normally distributed with mean ...
22 views

### VIX For Convertible Bonds

Is there something similar to the VIX but related to the convertibles bonds market in the U.S. ? Thanks, Max.
2k views

### What are some quantitative approaches to value investment?

As a developer and statistician, I consider value investing to be a statistically sound investment strategy. I've read a few books on the area but I am still not clear on valuation measures. So I ...
69 views

### Why random walk Metropolis Hasting algorithm works bad on GARCH(1,1) parameters estimation

I am trying to estimate the parameters of the GARCH(1,1) model with MCMC method, firstly, I read the paper: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/12985/1/MPRA_paper_12985.pdf Metropolis Hasting method is ...
50 views

### Dixit & Pindyck (1993) Chapter 4, equation 13

Starting with the Bellman equation for the optimal stopping problem: $$F(x,t)=max\{\Omega(x,t), \pi(x,t)+(1+\rho dt)^{-1} E[F(x+dx, t+dt)|x]\}$$ In the continuation region where the second term is the ...
73 views

### Volatility Surface Constituents, do's and dont's

Recently I have been working a lot with implied volatility and volatility surfaces. The basic idea is easy to follow: 1) Gather market prices of options at different (Strike,Expiry) 2) Calculate ...
51 views

### Magrabe Exchange Option: not equal drifts

I need to calculate the price of exchange option between 2 assets $S_1$ and $S_2$ The formula is given here Wiki: Magrabe formula or here Quant Stack Exchange. In the derivation of the formula it is ...
249 views

### How can an FRA create arbitrage opportunities?

I'm working through Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (beginner trying to understand investment banking). I've more or less followed the discussion of interest rates, forward rates and forward ...
12k views

### How to fit ARMA+GARCH Model In R?

I am currently working on ARMA+GARCH model using R. I am looking out for example which explain step by step explanation for fitting this model in R. I have time series which is stationary and I am ...
352 views

### Par and Zero Coupon Yield Curves

The government par yield curve shows a marginally lower yield than the Government zero coupon curve. What is the reason for this in general.
591 views

### What does it mean to be “long or short in volatility”?

I've heard a question regarding pricing of european calls. The question is: Is the call long or short in volatility when it is (deep) OTM? What is the profile of the implied volatility? I ...
52 views

### Convertible bonds market data

My question is twofold. First, what are the key informations used to describe a convertible bond market ? I'm thinking about market size, conversion rate, appropriate index, ... Second, where to ...
436 views

### Do quants need to know Accounting?

Do quants need to know Accounting? In my school's undergrad Quant program, we had Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting, which were listed as prerequisites for our undergrad Finance ...
76 views

### Understanding how to calculate position profits and trading profits

I am analysing a data set of trader transactions and would like to implement the methodology found in the paper by Fishe and Smith 2012. The main problem I am having is understanding the difference ...
75 views

### When are implied and real world parameters the same?

Suppose $T$ the maturity of a risky bond which defaults with probability $p$ over its lifetime. If it defaults it pays zero. Thus to price this bond in risk neutral terms would give ...
52 views

### Is it possible that some types of financial systems can resonate?

Financial systems can certainly be modeled using the same tools physicists use to model dynamic physical systems. The validity of such is evidenced by models such as that developed by Black and ...
195 views

### InteractiveBrokers server outage every Saturday

I am fetching some historical data from Interactive Brokers with their API. But I got a bit of annoying their HongKong history data server ('hkhdm' in the connection status window) get disconnected ...
142 views

### what is the definition of resetting tenor and time to maturity tenor in libor rates

I have a question about the definition and understanding of libor rates. We have the time to maturity tenor, $T$, which is the time over which i borrow or lend money. For libor we also have the reset ...
30 views

### Multi-objective optimization: Where to find qualified examples for portfolio management?

I am looking for qualified examples of multi-objective optimization applied to a portfolio management situation in non-normal markets. Where can I find one or more examples of such a multi-objective ...
131 views

### Black-Litterman, how to choose the uncertainty in the views $\Omega$ for smooth transitions form prior to posterior

In Black-Litterman we get a new vector of expected returns of the form: \begin{align} \Pi_{BL} = \Pi + \underbrace{\tau \Sigma P^T[P\tau\Sigma P^T+\Omega]^{-1}}_{\text{correction}}[Q-P\Pi] \end{align} ...
68 views

### Is it possible to generate Alpha by taking only systematic risks?

I read somewhere that to generate Alpha one has to take idiosyncratic risks. But is it not possible to generate alpha by taking just systematic risks. There could be a asset allocation strategy where ...
59 views

### Option greeks: sensitivity to 1% move

In a Black&Scholes framework how can I compute the following sensitivities: to 1% move in the underlying price to 1% move in implied volatility I would like the greeks to tell me how many ...
94 views

### How to get twice the expected return of S&P 500

If I create a diversified portfolio of 2*beta stocks, can I expect to get twice the return of S&P 500. Example: Out of the universe of stocks available to me I randomly choose 10 stocks whose ...
34 views

### CDS credit spreads vs default probability

What is the relationship between a CDS credit spread (as set by the CDS issuer) and the instantaneous default probability (as estimated by the CDS issuer)? I hear they are similar but not the same. ...
20 views

### If you knew market’s expected spot rates, could you deduce if there is a forward-risk premium?

Suppose that you were importing small electric transformers, that delivery from all suppliers would take approximately 6 months, and that you faced the situation shown in the table below: The Table ...
2k views

### How to get list of all CUSIPS/ISIN?

I want a list of all CUSIPs/ISINs. It would be nice if they were also categorized (e.g. Bonds/Funds etc). Where can I get such a data?