Building upon the ideas introduced in their previous book, Derivatives in Financial Markets with Stochastic Volatility, the authors study the pricing and hedging of financial derivatives under stochastic volatility in equity, interest-rate, and credit markets. They present and analyze multiscale stochastic volatility models and asymptotic approximations. These can be used in equity markets, for instance, to link the prices of path-dependent exotic instruments to market implied volatilities. The methods are also used for interest rate and credit derivatives. Other applications considered include variance-reduction techniques, portfolio optimization, forward-looking estimation of CAPM 'beta', and the Heston model and generalizations of it. 'Off-the-shelf' formulas and calibration tools are provided to ease the transition for practitioners who adopt this new method. The attention to detail and explicit presentation make this also an excellent text for a graduate course in financial and applied mathematics.

Asymptotic analysis of stochastic stock price models is the central topic of the present volume. Special examples of such models are stochastic volatility models, that have been developed as an answer to certain imperfections in a celebrated Black-Scholes model of option pricing. In a stock price model with stochastic volatility, the random behavior of the volatility is described by a stochastic process. For instance, in the Hull-White model the volatility process is a geometric Brownian motion, the Stein-Stein model uses an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process as the stochastic volatility, and in the Heston model a Cox-Ingersoll-Ross process governs the behavior of the volatility. One of the author's main goals is to provide sharp asymptotic formulas with error estimates for distribution densities of stock prices, option pricing functions, and implied volatilities in various stochastic volatility models. The author also establishes sharp asymptotic formulas for the implied volatility at extreme strikes in general stochastic stock price models. The present volume is addressed to researchers and graduate students working in the area of financial mathematics, analysis, or probability theory. The reader is expected to be familiar with elements of classical analysis, stochastic analysis and probability theory.

Most financial and investment decisions are based on considerations of possible future changes and require forecasts on the evolution of the financial world. Time series and processes are the natural tools for describing the dynamic behavior of financial data, leading to the required forecasts. This book presents a survey of the empirical properties of financial time series, their descriptions by means of mathematical processes, and some implications for important financial applications used in many areas like risk evaluation, option pricing or portfolio construction. The statistical tools used to extract information from raw data are introduced. Extensive multiscale empirical statistics provide a solid benchmark of stylized facts (heteroskedasticity, long memory, fat-tails, leverage...), in order to assess various mathematical structures that can capture the observed regularities. The author introduces a broad range of processes and evaluates them systematically against the benchmark, summarizing the successes and limitations of these models from an empirical point of view. The outcome is that only multiscale ARCH processes with long memory, discrete multiplicative structures and non-normal innovations are able to capture correctly the empirical properties. In particular, only a discrete time series framework allows to capture all the stylized facts in a process, whereas the stochastic calculus used in the continuum limit is too constraining. The present volume offers various applications and extensions for this class of processes including high-frequency volatility estimators, market risk evaluation, covariance estimation and multivariate extensions of the processes. The book discusses many practical implications and is addressed to practitioners and quants in the financial industry, as well as to academics, including graduate (Master or PhD level) students. The prerequisites are basic statistics and some elementary financial mathematics.

A complete guide to the theory and practice of volatility models in financial engineering Volatility has become a hot topic in this era of instant communications, spawning a great deal of research in empirical finance and time series econometrics. Providing an overview of the most recent advances, Handbook of Volatility Models and Their Applications explores key concepts and topics essential for modeling the volatility of financial time series, both univariate and multivariate, parametric and non-parametric, high-frequency and low-frequency. Featuring contributions from international experts in the field, the book features numerous examples and applications from real-world projects and cutting-edge research, showing step by step how to use various methods accurately and efficiently when assessing volatility rates. Following a comprehensive introduction to the topic, readers are provided with three distinct sections that unify the statistical and practical aspects of volatility: Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity and Stochastic Volatility presents ARCH and stochastic volatility models, with a focus on recent research topics including mean, volatility, and skewness spillovers in equity markets Other Models and Methods presents alternative approaches, such as multiplicative error models, nonparametric and semi-parametric models, and copula-based models of (co)volatilities Realized Volatility explores issues of the measurement of volatility by realized variances and covariances, guiding readers on how to successfully model and forecast these measures Handbook of Volatility Models and Their Applications is an essential reference for academics and practitioners in finance, business, and econometrics who work with volatility models in their everyday work. The book also serves as a supplement for courses on risk management and volatility at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels.

This book, first published in 2000, addresses pricing and hedging derivative securities in uncertain and changing market volatility.

The Oxford Handbook of Computational Economics and Finance provides a survey of both the foundations of and recent advances in the frontiers of analysis and action. It is both historically and interdisciplinarily rich and also tightly connected to the rise of digital society. It begins with the conventional view of computational economics, including recent algorithmic development in computing rational expectations, volatility, and general equilibrium. It then moves from traditional computing in economics and finance to recent developments in natural computing, including applications of nature-inspired intelligence, genetic programming, swarm intelligence, and fuzzy logic. Also examined are recent developments of network and agent-based computing in economics. How these approaches are applied is examined in chapters on such subjects as trading robots and automated markets. The last part deals with the epistemology of simulation in its trinity form with the integration of simulation, computation, and dynamics. Distinctive is the focus on natural computationalism and the examination of the implications of intelligent machines for the future of computational economics and finance. Not merely individual robots, but whole integrated systems are extending their "immigration" to the world of Homo sapiens, or symbiogenesis.

Risk control and derivative pricing have become of major concern to financial institutions, and there is a real need for adequate statistical tools to measure and anticipate the amplitude of the potential moves of the financial markets. Summarising theoretical developments in the field, this 2003 second edition has been substantially expanded. Additional chapters now cover stochastic processes, Monte-Carlo methods, Black-Scholes theory, the theory of the yield curve, and Minority Game. There are discussions on aspects of data analysis, financial products, non-linear correlations, and herding, feedback and agent based models. This book has become a classic reference for graduate students and researchers working in econophysics and mathematical finance, and for quantitative analysts working on risk management, derivative pricing and quantitative trading strategies.