# All Questions

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### What is the instantaneous P&L of a Variance Swap?

What is the instantaneous P&L of a variance swap. Is it $(\sigma^{2}_{t}-\sigma^{2}_{implied})dt$?
583 views

### Does amortization of bond start accumulating on trade date or settlement date?

I am sorry if this is not appropriate here. We are building a wealth management system and I really would like to know whether amortization of bond start accumulating on trade date or settlement date ...
1k views

### Modelling VIX Futures for risk management

I would like to model VIX futures. The aim is not pricing but risk management. Thus I want to get risk measures like volatility right and be able to accurately calculate correlations when the VIX ...
574 views

### Evaluating forecasting algorithm

I am trying to evaluate a forecasting algorithm for stock price prediction. However, the performance of the algorithm may be very much tied to the trading strategy. Is there a systematic way for ...
435 views

### mortgage prepayment model

I am trying to develop my own MBS prepayment model. I am confused by the terms SMM and CPR. Are they estimates/models in themselves or are they ACTUAL data for the MBS pool. where can I find actual ...
806 views

### Portfolio Greek Exposure Equations

What are the calculations for calculating greek exposures in a portfolio of equities and equity options? I think I have them but I want to be sure. Are these correct (for vanilla options)? ...
2k views

### SP500 sector weights - how do they change?

The weights of the nine S&P equity sector indexes vary over time. One can find measures of them in a number of different formats: S&P 500 Sector SPDRs - historical sector weights Here's ...
106 views

### Textbook / Reports on Alphanomics

Look at ACCT 340 @ http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/research/courses/acctg.html I've read some of the research papers written by the Professor, and the material is very interesting. However, I'm looking ...
154 views

### How can I estimate the parameters of an option value model of retirement?

I am modelling an option value model of retirement, see for instance Stock and Wise (1990). I am however not sure to which class of problems this model falls into and hence which optimization method I ...
358 views

### Can Hurst exponent be used to characterize nonlinear dependence in time series?

It appears to me that the answer is no, because Hurst exponent measures persistence in terms of autocorrelation, which is a linear measure. So even if a time series of asset returns is driven by ...
841 views

### How to compute interest rate futures spread ratio?

I am confused on how to compute the spread ratio. For example, this is example I came across with my broker - Consider 2 contracts Bobl and Euribor. The DV01 of Bobl i 44.8 and Euribor is 25. To ...
450 views

### Does Ito/Malliavin calculus have any applications helpful for direction based trading?

I'm an aspiring computer scientist who want to move into algorithmic trading at some point. At the moment I'm mostly focusing on courses in machine learning/data analysis etc. but I've noticed that ...
165 views

### Historical data on short rates

I would like to backtest a short-equity strategy. I'm looking for historical data on the availability of shares and cost to short certain stocks. Does anyone know of such data being available ...
153 views

### Observed market price for the August-Greece-paid bonds were the NPV of the bond or of an option?

The bonds which Greece has paid had been valued by market as junk once, just before their payment. Given that the observed market value is the net present value of the instrument, why were they so ...
1k views

### Computing FX forward delivery dates

I'm looking for a precise definition of how FX outright delivery dates are computed. Chapter 1 of the book 'Foreign Exchange Option Pricing: A Practitioners Guide' (this chapter can be found here) ...
434 views

### Question on OptionMetrics: “Strike Price times 1000” differs too much from Index price

I have a question regarding the strike price that is given on OptionMetrics. My goal is to primarily retrieve options prices of a specific maturity with strike prices that are 20% in-the-money, ...
381 views

### NYSE Early Close Rules (July 4th and Dec. 25th)

Does the NYSE provide a list of rules for determining when to close at 1:00 for a holiday? I have found a list of upcoming half-days here but I would like to know the rules so that I don't have to ...
3k views

### Interpolating FX forward points

When computing an FX forward rate for an expiry that is not explicitly quoted, it seems to me that a reasonable way to do it is log-linear interpolation of the two nearest outright forward rates, ...
7k views

### Data source for historical Share Outstanding totals for individual stocks?

Data is normally adjusted for splits/reverse splits, etc. The current shares outstanding is usually available. Is there a data repository that captures the shares outstanding for any point in the ...
1k views

### ROC: difference between discrete and continuous?

Using the ROC function in the R package TTR, there is a choice between continuous (the default) and discrete, but with no guidance on which you choose when. In the code the difference is: ...
3k views

### How to define the objective function for a custom optimization problem?

I would like to find the allocations that would minimize some user-defined metric (Sortino, minimum drawdown, etc) for a portfolio of assets. How would one go about formulating the objective ...
1k views

### VIX = Vega of S&P500 options?

ok, so let assume I can predict the daily change in the VIX itself (in points) every day. what would be the best way to play this with OPTIONS? well, obviously VIX options, but if I can look at the ...
1k views

### Multi asset option portfolio risk management (greeks and FX exposure)

I am running an options book containing listed options across multiple products. I trade mostly equity and index related options - with a preference for European expiration products. I trade products ...
434 views

### Is there any evidence that an option delta approximates ITM expiry probability?

Several sources (online and offline) that discuss the delta of a listed vanilla option, state that its delta is a (guesstimate?) of the probability of said option expiring ITM (in the BSM framework). ...
824 views

### Strategy Risk and Portfolio Allocation Model (copy from nuclear phynance)

Here is a very interesting question that I found at Nuclear Phynance (original author: Strange); I though it is so interesting that it is worthwhile to ask it here: I have $N$ strategies, across a ...
137 views

### Brent Crude Data

I am trying to locate historical volatility data (5+ years) for Brent Crude? Does anyone know where I might be able to source such data?
1k views

### Can the Heston model be shown to reduce to the original Black Scholes model if appropriate parameters are chosen?

Summary For Heston model parameters that render the variance process constant, the solution should revert to plain Black-Scholes. Closed from solutions to the Heston model don't seem to do this, even ...
509 views

### Benfords law and quantitative finance

Benford's law has been applied in various ways for detecting fraud (e.g. elections or accounting). But what are the most useful applications of Benford in quantitative finance? Are there any? I have ...
590 views

### Backtesting VaR model violation independence

I am interested in hearing about the practitioner state of the art for testing the time independence of a VaR model (i.e. that VaR violations are independent in time). There are a number of tests in ...
549 views

### Long-term vs short-term strategies \ investing

Suppose most investors have very short investing horizons and use appropriate (for them) strategies, but investor X has a very long horizon. He would like to trade some advantages (early withdrawal ...
176 views

### Indexes/stocks with flat implied volatilities

After the 1987 crash, the S&P500 index implied volatility changed from nearly flat to negatively sloped. According to Rubinstein the Black-Scholes model was not so wrong when applied to the ...
480 views

### Why don't options traders use charts? Or do they?

Retail trading platforms typically offer equity charts but only instantaneous quotes on options. It seems like even a few minutes of historical data would be useful when entering an order. Are charts ...
78 views

### Neglect the positive values in negative interest rates modelling?

The magnitude of the negative interested rate should vary correlated with the increase in fixed assets prices and with cross-currency basis spreads. Could their volatility / correlation ...