IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v475y2017icp59-76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Volatility smile as relativistic effect

Author

Listed:
  • Kakushadze, Zura

Abstract

We give an explicit formula for the probability distribution based on a relativistic extension of Brownian motion. The distribution (1) is properly normalized and (2) obeys the tower law (semigroup property), so we can construct martingales and self-financing hedging strategies and price claims (options). This model is a 1-constant-parameter extension of the Black–Scholes–Merton model. The new parameter is the analog of the speed of light in Special Relativity. However, in the financial context there is no “speed limit” and the new parameter has the meaning of a characteristic diffusion speed at which relativistic effects become important and lead to a much softer asymptotic behavior, i.e., fat tails, giving rise to volatility smiles. We argue that a nonlocal stochastic description of such (Lévy) processes is inadequate and discuss a local description from physics. The presentation is intended to be pedagogical.

Suggested Citation

  • Kakushadze, Zura, 2017. "Volatility smile as relativistic effect," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 475(C), pages 59-76.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:475:y:2017:i:c:p:59-76
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2017.02.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437117301267
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2017.02.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Goldstein & Gregory Laughlin & Anthony Aguirre & Joseph Grundfest, 2014. "Information Transmission between Financial Markets in Chicago and New York," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 49(2), pages 283-312, May.
    2. Dilip B. Madan & Peter P. Carr & Eric C. Chang, 1998. "The Variance Gamma Process and Option Pricing," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 2(1), pages 79-105.
    3. Peter Carr & Hélyette Geman & Dilip B. Madan & Marc Yor, 2003. "Stochastic Volatility for Lévy Processes," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 345-382, July.
    4. S. G. Kou, 2002. "A Jump-Diffusion Model for Option Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(8), pages 1086-1101, August.
    5. Adrian Dragulescu & Victor Yakovenko, 2002. "Probability distribution of returns in the Heston model with stochastic volatility," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(6), pages 443-453.
    6. Peter Carr & Jian Sun, 2007. "A new approach for option pricing under stochastic volatility," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 87-150, May.
    7. Merton, Robert C. & Samuelson, Paul A., 1974. "Fallacy of the log-normal approximation to optimal portfolio decision-making over many periods," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 67-94, May.
    8. Merton, Robert C., 1976. "Option pricing when underlying stock returns are discontinuous," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 125-144.
    9. John C. Cox & Jonathan E. Ingersoll Jr. & Stephen A. Ross, 2005. "A Theory Of The Term Structure Of Interest Rates," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 5, pages 129-164, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Robert C. Merton, 2005. "Theory of rational option pricing," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 8, pages 229-288, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Engle, Robert F. (ed.), 1995. "ARCH: Selected Readings," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774327.
    12. Kleinert, Hagen, 2002. "Option pricing from path integral for non-Gaussian fluctuations. Natural martingale and application to truncated Lèvy distributions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 312(1), pages 217-242.
    13. Paul A. Samuelson, 1973. "Proof That Properly Discounted Present Values of Assets Vibrate Randomly," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 4(2), pages 369-374, Autumn.
    14. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
    15. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:2059-2106 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Juan M. Romero & Ilse B. Zubieta-Mart'inez, 2016. "Relativistic Quantum Finance," Papers 1604.01447, arXiv.org.
    17. Darrell Duffie & Jun Pan & Kenneth Singleton, 2000. "Transform Analysis and Asset Pricing for Affine Jump-Diffusions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1343-1376, November.
    18. Heston, Steven L, 1993. "A Closed-Form Solution for Options with Stochastic Volatility with Applications to Bond and Currency Options," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(2), pages 327-343.
    19. Kirill Ilinski, 1997. "Physics of Finance," Papers hep-th/9710148, arXiv.org.
    20. Jin‐Chuan Duan, 1995. "The Garch Option Pricing Model," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 13-32, January.
    21. Carr, Peter, 1998. "Randomization and the American Put," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(3), pages 597-626.
    22. Zura Kakushadze, 2015. "Path integral and asset pricing," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(11), pages 1759-1771, November.
    23. Wiggins, James B., 1987. "Option values under stochastic volatility: Theory and empirical estimates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 351-372, December.
    24. Yu Nakayama, 2009. "Gravity Dual for Reggeon Field Theory and Non-linear Quantum Finance," Papers 0906.4112, arXiv.org.
    25. D. Sornette, 1998. "Gauge theory of Finance?," Papers cond-mat/9804045, arXiv.org.
    26. Cox, John C. & Ross, Stephen A., 1976. "The valuation of options for alternative stochastic processes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 145-166.
    27. Philip Protter & Michael Dritschel, 1999. "Complete markets with discontinuous security price," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 203-214.
    28. Hélyette Geman & Dilip B. Madan & Marc Yor, 2001. "Time Changes for Lévy Processes," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 79-96, January.
    29. Hull, John C & White, Alan D, 1987. "The Pricing of Options on Assets with Stochastic Volatilities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 281-300, June.
    30. Jean-Philippe Bouchaud & Didier Sornette, 1994. "The Black-Scholes option pricing problem in mathematical finance: generalization and extensions for a large class of stochastic processes," Science & Finance (CFM) working paper archive 500040, Science & Finance, Capital Fund Management.
    31. Antonis Papapantoleon, 2008. "An introduction to L\'{e}vy processes with applications in finance," Papers 0804.0482, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2008.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vitor H. Carvalho & Raquel M. Gaspar, 2021. "Relativistically into Finance," Working Papers REM 2021/0175, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    2. Vitor H. Carvalho & Raquel M. Gaspar, 2021. "Relativistic Option Pricing," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-24, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zura Kakushadze, 2016. "Volatility Smile as Relativistic Effect," Papers 1610.02456, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2017.
    2. Mark Broadie & Jerome B. Detemple, 2004. "ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE: Option Pricing: Valuation Models and Applications," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(9), pages 1145-1177, September.
    3. Anatoliy Swishchuk, 2013. "Modeling and Pricing of Swaps for Financial and Energy Markets with Stochastic Volatilities," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 8660, August.
    4. Gonçalo Faria & João Correia-da-Silva, 2014. "A closed-form solution for options with ambiguity about stochastic volatility," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 125-159, July.
    5. Li, Hongshan & Huang, Zhongyi, 2020. "An iterative splitting method for pricing European options under the Heston model☆," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 387(C).
    6. Hongshan Li & Zhongyi Huang, 2020. "An iterative splitting method for pricing European options under the Heston model," Papers 2003.12934, arXiv.org.
    7. Carl Chiarella & Xue-Zhong He & Christina Sklibosios Nikitopoulos, 2015. "Derivative Security Pricing," Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-662-45906-5, March.
    8. S. G. Kou, 2002. "A Jump-Diffusion Model for Option Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(8), pages 1086-1101, August.
    9. Cheng Few Lee & Yibing Chen & John Lee, 2020. "Alternative Methods to Derive Option Pricing Models: Review and Comparison," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 102, pages 3573-3617, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Cui, Zhenyu & Lars Kirkby, J. & Nguyen, Duy, 2019. "A general framework for time-changed Markov processes and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(2), pages 785-800.
    11. Rombouts, Jeroen V.K. & Stentoft, Lars, 2015. "Option pricing with asymmetric heteroskedastic normal mixture models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 635-650.
    12. Paola Zerilli, 2005. "Option pricing and spikes in volatility: theoretical and empirical analysis," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2005 76, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    13. Ghysels, E. & Harvey, A. & Renault, E., 1995. "Stochastic Volatility," Papers 95.400, Toulouse - GREMAQ.
    14. Mondher Bellalah, 2009. "Derivatives, Risk Management & Value," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 7175, August.
    15. Bakshi, Gurdip & Cao, Charles & Chen, Zhiwu, 2000. "Pricing and hedging long-term options," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 277-318.
    16. Andersen, Torben G. & Bollerslev, Tim & Christoffersen, Peter F. & Diebold, Francis X., 2005. "Volatility forecasting," CFS Working Paper Series 2005/08, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    17. Li, Chenxu & Ye, Yongxin, 2019. "Pricing and Exercising American Options: an Asymptotic Expansion Approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Giulia Di Nunno & Kk{e}stutis Kubilius & Yuliya Mishura & Anton Yurchenko-Tytarenko, 2023. "From constant to rough: A survey of continuous volatility modeling," Papers 2309.01033, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    19. Eckhard Platen & Hardy Hulley, 2008. "Hedging for the Long Run," Research Paper Series 214, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    20. Carr, Peter & Wu, Liuren, 2004. "Time-changed Levy processes and option pricing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 113-141, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:475:y:2017:i:c:p:59-76. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.