Bachelorarbeit aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich BWL - Investition und Finanzierung, Note: 1,2, EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The Black-Scholes (or Black-Scholes-Merton) Model has become the standard model for the pricing of options and can surely be seen as one of the main reasons for the growth of the derivative market after the model ́s introduction in 1973. As a consequence, the inventors of the model, Robert Merton, Myron Scholes, and without doubt also Fischer Black, if he had not died in 1995, were awarded the Nobel prize for economics in 1997. The model, however, makes some strict assumptions that must hold true for accurate pricing of an option. The most important one is constant volatility, whereas empirical evidence shows that volatility is heteroscedastic. This leads to increased mispricing of options especially in the case of out of the money options as well as to a phenomenon known as volatility smile. As a consequence, researchers introduced various approaches to expand the model by allowing the volatility to be non-constant and to follow a sto-chastic process. It is the objective of this thesis to investigate if the pricing accuracy of the Black-Scholes model can be significantly improved by applying a stochastic volatility model.

This book is a sequel to the author's well-received "Option Valuation under Stochastic Volatility." It extends that work to jump-diffusions and many related topics in quantitative finance. Topics include spectral theory for jump-diffusions, boundary behavior for short-term interest rate models, modelling VIX options, inference theory, discrete dividends, and more. It provides approximately 750 pages of original research in 26 chapters, with 165 illustrations, Mathematica, and some C/C++ codes. The first 12 chapters (550 pages) are completely new. Also included are reprints of selected previous publications of the author for convenient reference. The book should interest both researchers and quantitatively-oriented investors and traders. First 12 chapters: Slow Reflection, Jump-Returns, & Short-term Interest Rates Spectral Theory for Jump-diffusions Joint Time Series Modelling of SPX and VIX Modelling VIX Options (and Futures) under Stochastic Volatility Stochastic Volatility as a Hidden Markov Model Continuous-time Inference: Mathematical Methods and Worked Examples A Closer Look at the Square-root and 3/2-model A Closer Look at the SABR Model Back to Basics: An Update on the Discrete Dividend Problem PDE Numerics without the Pain Exact Solution to Double Barrier Problems under a Class of Processes Advanced Smile Asymptotics: Geometry, Geodesics, and All That

The approximate method to price American options makes use of the fact that accurate pricing of these options does not require exact determination of the early exercise boundary. Thus, the procedure mixes the two models of constant and stochastic volatility. The idea is to obtain early exercise boundary through constant volatility model using the approximation methods of AitSahlia and Lai or Ju and then utilize this boundary to price the options under stochastic volatility models. The data on S & P 100 Index American options is used to analyze the pricing performance of the mixing of the two models. The performance is studied with respect to percentage pricing error and absolute pricing errors for each money-ness maturity group.

Packed with insights, Lorenzo Bergomi's Stochastic Volatility Modeling explains how stochastic volatility is used to address issues arising in the modeling of derivatives, including:Which trading issues do we tackle with stochastic volatility? How do we design models and assess their relevance? How do we tell which models are usable and when does c