In this chapter, we present recent developments in using the tools of continuous-time Markov chains for the valuation of European and path-dependent financial derivatives. We also survey results on a newly proposed regime switching approximation to stochastic volatility, and stochastic local volatility models. The presented framework is part of an exciting recent stream of literature on numerical option pricing, and offers a new perspective that combines the theory of diffusion processes, Markov chains, and Fourier techniques. It is also elegantly connected to partial differential equation (PDE) approaches.

This book focuses on two-time-scale Markov chains in discrete time. Our motivation stems from existing and emerging applications in optimization and control of complex systems in manufacturing, wireless communication, and ?nancial engineering. Much of our e?ort in this book is devoted to designing system models arising from various applications, analyzing them via analytic and probabilistic techniques, and developing feasible compu- tionalschemes. Ourmainconcernistoreducetheinherentsystemcompl- ity. Although each of the applications has its own distinct characteristics, all of them are closely related through the modeling of uncertainty due to jump or switching random processes. Oneofthesalientfeaturesofthisbookistheuseofmulti-timescalesin Markovprocessesandtheirapplications. Intuitively,notallpartsorcom- nents of a large-scale system evolve at the same rate. Some of them change rapidly and others vary slowly. The di?erent rates of variations allow us to reduce complexity via decomposition and aggregation. It would be ideal if we could divide a large system into its smallest irreducible subsystems completely separable from one another and treat each subsystem indep- dently. However, this is often infeasible in reality due to various physical constraints and other considerations. Thus, we have to deal with situations in which the systems are only nearly decomposable in the sense that there are weak links among the irreducible subsystems, which dictate the oc- sional regime changes of the system. An e?ective way to treat such near decomposability is time-scale separation. That is, we set up the systems as if there were two time scales, fast vs. slow. xii Preface Followingthetime-scaleseparation,weusesingularperturbationmeth- ology to treat the underlying systems.

This volume collects papers, based on invited talks given at the IMA workshop in Modeling, Stochastic Control, Optimization, and Related Applications, held at the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications, University of Minnesota, during May and June, 2018. There were four week-long workshops during the conference. They are (1) stochastic control, computation methods, and applications, (2) queueing theory and networked systems, (3) ecological and biological applications, and (4) finance and economics applications. For broader impacts, researchers from different fields covering both theoretically oriented and application intensive areas were invited to participate in the conference. It brought together researchers from multi-disciplinary communities in applied mathematics, applied probability, engineering, biology, ecology, and networked science, to review, and substantially update most recent progress. As an archive, this volume presents some of the highlights of the workshops, and collect papers covering a broad range of topics.

Continuous time Markov Chain (CTMC) approximation techniques have received increasing attention in the option pricing literature, due to their ability to solve complex pricing problems, although existing approaches are mostly limited to one or two dimensions. This paper develops a general methodology for modeling and pricing financial derivatives which depend on systems of stochastic diffusion processes. This is accomplished with a general de-correlation procedure, which reduces the system of correlated diffusions to an uncorrelated system. This enables simple and efficient approximation of the driving processes by uni-variate CTMC approximations. Weak convergence of the approximation is demonstrated, with second order convergence in space. Numerical experiments demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the method for various European and early-exercise options in two and three dimensions.

This book gives a systematic treatment of singularly perturbed systems that naturally arise in control and optimization, queueing networks, manufacturing systems, and financial engineering. It presents results on asymptotic expansions of solutions of Komogorov forward and backward equations, properties of functional occupation measures, exponential upper bounds, and functional limit results for Markov chains with weak and strong interactions. To bridge the gap between theory and applications, a large portion of the book is devoted to applications in controlled dynamic systems, production planning, and numerical methods for controlled Markovian systems with large-scale and complex structures in the real-world problems. This second edition has been updated throughout and includes two new chapters on asymptotic expansions of solutions for backward equations and hybrid LQG problems. The chapters on analytic and probabilistic properties of two-time-scale Markov chains have been almost completely rewritten and the notation has been streamlined and simplified. This book is written for applied mathematicians, engineers, operations researchers, and applied scientists. Selected material from the book can also be used for a one semester advanced graduate-level course in applied probability and stochastic processes.

This book introduces some advanced topics in probability theories ? both pure and applied ? is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the analysis of stochastic dynamical systems, in terms of Gaussian processes, white noise theory, and diffusion processes. The second part of the book discusses some up-to-date applications of optimization theories, martingale measure theories, reliability theories, stochastic filtering theories and stochastic algorithms towards mathematical finance issues such as option pricing and hedging, bond market analysis, volatility studies and asset trading modeling.