Questions tagged [variance-swap]

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2 votes
0 answers
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How do banks and dealers effectively hedge a variance swap?

It is known that a variance swap can be replicated by a strip of options. However, it is costly to trade that many OTM options and there is not enough liquidity to trade the wings in the quantity that ...
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2 votes
0 answers
100 views

Barrier on realized volatility

I am trying to understand the risk exposures of vanilla options that also have a European barrier on realized volatility. For example, the option could knock out if the realized volatility over the ...
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6 votes
3 answers
608 views

Is variance swap long volatility of volatility?

In JPM's note on variance swaps, on page 29, they say "... a long variance swap is also long volatility of volatility". In Bennett's book Trading Volatility, on page 115, he says "... a ...
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2 votes
1 answer
179 views

Volatility swaps hedging

I have heard that traders use a straddle to hedge volatility swaps (in the FX context), although I could not figure out the specifics. Is this type of hedge used in practice? And if yes, how does it ...
  • 576
0 votes
1 answer
104 views

Smile wings and varswap pricing

Is it true that far wings of the volatility smile have an outsized influence on the price of a variance swap? Is there a mathematical argument demonstrating this idea? What do we generally refer as ...
  • 576
0 votes
1 answer
104 views

Calculating PnL of Options strategies with Volatility Surface

New to Vol trading - wondering if there are any good references on calculating PnL from options strategies if I only have a volatility surface (delta or moneyness) and no individual options prices. ...
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1 vote
1 answer
92 views

Impact of stochastic rates on varswaps and volswaps

Let us consider that we are looking at issuing some varswaps or volswaps on some FX rate. By longer term I mean something longer than 3 months. Different from this time two years ago, now the interest ...
  • 576
2 votes
1 answer
96 views

Initial forward variance curve calibration

Let $V_t^{T_1, T_2}$ be the forward variance swap rate for the period $[T_1, T_2]$, seen from $t$ (see for instance Lorenzo Bergomi's Smile Dynamics II) and let $\xi_t^T = V_t^{T,T} = \frac{\partial}{\...
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0 votes
0 answers
73 views

Zero-Mean Realized Volatility Motivation / Variance Swap

What is the motivation for the use of zero-mean historical volatility and why is it the basis for variance swaps as opposed to variance calculated with mean?
2 votes
1 answer
186 views

A lower bound for variance swap strike

There is a famous formula for the variance swap strike that reads $$ K_{var}^2 = \int_{-\infty}^\infty dz\, n(z) I^2(z) $$ where $I(z)$ is the Black-Scholes implied volatility function, $$ n(z) = \...
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0 votes
1 answer
527 views

Derive the price of log contract

I am reading the Neuberger [1999] Log Contract paper and really confused on the log contract. So if the payoff is $\ln(S_T)$, then we can easily solve the price of such derivative: $$f_t^s = e^{-r(T-t)...
3 votes
1 answer
329 views

Market price versus theoretical price of varswaps

When I traded varswaps several years ago, for some indices there was a significant mismatch between market price and theoretical price. The theoretical price assumes continuous monitoring and infinite ...
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4 votes
2 answers
607 views

Different types of swaps and generalized pricing structure - correlation swap, variance swap, volatility swap, gamma swap, etc

I am very new to derivatives pricing, and I am currently trying to learn these on my own. As far as I can tell, most of the derivatives that are simple (in the sense of having a constant strike that ...
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1 vote
0 answers
79 views

Practical Effect of Time-Decay on Variance Swaps?

I want to implement a long vol hedging strategy by rolling spot variance swaps every month. This would be done through replicating spot VIX using the definition of VIX as a portfolio of OTM one-month ...
0 votes
1 answer
699 views

Capped Variance Swap // Fair volatility using replication portfolio

I know that the Heston volatility model should be the best approach for computing fair volatility on capped variance swap but is there a way to estimate it from replication portfolio? What I call ...
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0 votes
1 answer
125 views

Structured question on mark-to-market value of a variance swap

anyone can provide solution or some idea to the following question? thanks
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1 vote
0 answers
141 views

VIX and Realised Volatility Scaling

I have calculated the VIX implied volatility according to the CBOE Whitepaper: \begin{equation*} \sigma^2 = \frac{2}{T} \left(\sum_i \frac{\Delta K_i}{K_i^2} Q(K_i) e^{rT} \right) - \frac{1}{T} \...
2 votes
1 answer
535 views

Deriving the VIX formula

I am having trouble filling in a few steps in the derivation. From Martin (2017), we get the following assumptions: Constant continuously compounded rate $r$; The underlying doesn't pay dividens; ...
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0 votes
0 answers
45 views

Explicit formula replication of variance swap using vanilla option under black and scholes model with nonzero risk-free rate and nonzero dividend [duplicate]

I didn't find the formula for the following portfolio (variance swap replication) with nonzero risk-free rate and nonzero dividend under black and scholes model : (1) I found formula and proof only ...
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0 votes
1 answer
244 views

Replication of variance swap using vanilla option under black and scholes model with nonzero risk-free rate and nonzero dividend [duplicate]

I didn't find the formula for the following portfolio (variance swap replication) with nonzero risk-free rate and nonzero dividend under black and scholes model : I found formula and proof only with ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
68 views

Variance Swaps for IR products

Just a question here. I am aware that variance swaps for equity products are quite common in the market. However, will anyone be familiar with variance swaps on swap rates in the market? Are they ...
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1 vote
0 answers
659 views

Variance swap = delta hedged strip of options

Is there a paper that explicitly shows/demonstrates that a variance swap can be replicated by delta-hedging a strip of options? Thus far I have not found anything: papers mention it in passing ...
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1 vote
0 answers
170 views

Margin requirements for OTC variance swaps

It is not clear for me the mechanism of margin requirements for OTC variance swaps. I don't see in supplementary information to OTC Swaps the rules of margin maintenance or initial margin or ...