Questions tagged [mathematical-finance]
For questions about mathematical problems arising from the study of financial markets.
71 questions
29
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3
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Are symplectic methods used in (classical) Economics?
The tl;dr question is this: are economists using coordinate-free formulations in studying theory?
Borrowing from classical mechanics, the framework I have in mind for classical economics--involving ...
- 481
20
votes
10
answers
4k
views
Expected value as decision criterion in the context of rare events
I have often seen discussions of what actions to take in the context of rare events in terms of expected value. For example, if a lottery has a 1 in 100 million chance of winning, and delivers a ...
- 3,475
16
votes
2
answers
2k
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On mathematical aspects of the most recent Nobel Prize in economics winners' work
Can somebody briefly introduce the mathematical aspects, in particular, those related to mathematical finance, of the three economists who were just awarded this year's Nobel Memorial Prize in ...
- 622
12
votes
6
answers
5k
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Discrete version of Ito's lemma
Could anyone give me some references where I could find
(a) discrete version(s) of Ito's lemma
(b) a proof how it converges to the continuous form in the limit
(c) its usage within stochastic ...
- 5,935
12
votes
3
answers
2k
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Compactness of the set of densities of equivalent martingale measures
Consider an incomplete market $(\Omega,\mathcal F,\mathbb P)$ driven by a semimartingale $S=(S_t)_{t\in[0,T]}$. Under the no free lunch under vanishing risk (NFLVR) assumption, the set $\mathcal P^\...
- 243
12
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0
answers
1k
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American put option pricing by "binomial trees"
I'm teaching a financial mathematics course and have found a fascinating (to me) numerical phenomenon and wonder if anyone has studied it, or knows anything similar.
I'll try and give a description ...
- 23.2k
11
votes
10
answers
1k
views
Is there any straightforward way to substitute for Gaussian/Brownian assumptions in financial mathematics?
A huge amount of financial mathematics assumes Gaussian distributions of risks and Brownian movement of prices. What efforts have there been to replace these with heavy-tailed distributions? For ...
- 2,383
10
votes
2
answers
3k
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Convergence and non-convergence of left-point and mid-point Riemann sums
In standard calculus it is a well known fact that left-point and mid-point Riemann sums do become equal in the limit. When it comes to stochastic integration this is no longer the case. Taking the ...
- 5,935
8
votes
1
answer
6k
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Big picture concerning Ito integral, Stratonovich integral and standard results in probability theory
I am confused and don't get the big picture concerning the connection between
Ito integral
Stratonovich integral
Standard results in probability theory concerning skewed distributions.
Example: Take ...
- 5,935
8
votes
0
answers
304
views
"Meritocratic" pyramid schemes
There have been a couple of times in my life when people from multi-level marketing organizations attempted to recruit me. I listened to what they had to say, and both times I did not get involved ...
- 2,075
7
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How much one can earn on a white noise ?
Consider the simplfied math. model for asset price (it is nevertheless quite practical for specific situations see "PS" part below) assume price "p(n)" at moment "n" is equal to N(0,1) - i.i.d - ...
- 24.9k
6
votes
8
answers
1k
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Reference for elementary and "cool" statistics or financial math
I signed up for a Math Mentorship Program (for high school students) this term, but one of the students assigned to me is more interested in Statistics and Finance - something that would help him to ...
6
votes
1
answer
5k
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Transformation of the Black-Scholes PDE into the diffusion equation - shift of coordinate system
The aim of transforming the Black-Scholes PDE is of course to find a form where an relatively easy solution exists. Most of the steps seem to be straightforward - please use this reference:
https://...
- 5,935
6
votes
3
answers
4k
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Rigorous definition, detection and test for trending vs. mean-reverting behaviour of stochastic processes
This is a question that has haunted me for some time. In the domain of time series you always talk about trends and mean reversion. But at least to me these concepts are either defined axiomaticly ...
- 5,935
5
votes
3
answers
1k
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One can earn nothing on the Brownian motion, true ?
Consider any discrete time stochastic process $p(n)$ (price) with independent increments $\xi_k$ and $E(\xi_k)=0$. E.g. Brownian motion (i.e. $\xi_k = N(0,1)$).
Consider some "trading strategy" ...
- 24.9k
5
votes
1
answer
437
views
Elliptic PDEs in Finance
In mathematical finance, one often encounters parabolic PDEs typically through the Feynman-Kac representation theorem/formula. However, I'm curious are there interesting examples of Elliptic boundary ...
- 5,405
5
votes
1
answer
478
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Stieltjes integrals of predictable processes
I am looking for a direct proof of the fact that, roughly speaking, if $S=S_0+A+M$ is an $L^2$ semimartingale, and $M$ (the martingale part) has the martingale representation property, then for any ...
- 71
5
votes
1
answer
287
views
Arbitrage free price of a derivative when the price is collected over the lifetime of the derivative [closed]
Let $X_t$ be an american style financial derivative with random exercise time $T$
where $t$ and $T$ belongs to some finite set $A$.
Buying this derivative requires the buyer to pay $p_t$ up to time $T$...
user24451
4
votes
1
answer
426
views
Trajectorial version of Doob's $L^2$ inequality
In the paper http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~schachermayer/pubs/preprnts/prpr0154.pdf
you can find a trajectorial version of Doob's inequality. It is given by:
$$\bar{s}^2_T+4\sum_{k=0}^{T-1}\bar{s_k}(...
- 85
4
votes
2
answers
543
views
maximizing function (stochastic calculus)
S is a price process which follows Geometric Brownian motion with no drift:
dS=S*vol*dW, vol=const., W is a Wiener process.
Define the following ratio: R=E[Max(f(S)-S(T),0)]/E[f(S)], where S(T) is ...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
3k
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Algebraic Number Theory in Financial Mathematics
I am currently doing my masters studies in financial mathematics. However, I have had a good background in number theory and I don't feel like leaving it just like that. I am thus inquiring on any ...
- 169
4
votes
1
answer
800
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Responses from mathematicians concerning Flash trading [closed]
Have there been any responses from the mathematics community regarding flash trading, for example from a game theory or system dynamics point of view? Please answer with personal comments or ...
- 995
4
votes
0
answers
198
views
Pricing zero coupon bonds through PDE
I'm currently studying Paul Wilmott on quantitative finance and saw an interesting idea for an interest rate model that went unexplored in the book.
The idea is to model the market price of risk as a ...
- 51
3
votes
1
answer
392
views
A particular Lie algebra $L_{n}$ and (various) lie groups whose Lie algebra is isomorphic to $L_{n}$
Edit: According to the comment by @LSpice we realise the existing link to the main motivation of the question is not available. Then we search for the paper we found the following version:
https://www....
- 356
3
votes
2
answers
380
views
Large deviation bound for O-U process
Assume $X_t$ is an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process in the form of
$$
d X_t = -\alpha X_t dt + \sigma dB_t
$$
Is there an exponential bound (large-deviation bound) for
$$
P\left(
\max_{t\le T} |X_t| \ge z
\...
- 719
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Is the "hybrid" Black-Scholes Hull-White model arbitrage free?
Given a "hybrid" Black-Scholes Hull White (BSHW) model. That is, the stock price is modelled by a Black Scholes SDE:
\begin{equation} dS(t) = \mu(t)S(t)dt + \sigma_{S}(t)S(t)dW^{\mathbb{P}}_{S}(t)
\...
- 203
3
votes
2
answers
920
views
Characteristic operator
Let $X_t\in\mathbb{R}$ be an Ito diffusion process given by $$ dX_t=a(b-X_t)dt+\sigma dW_t$$, then the characteristic operator of $X_t$ is given by $$L=a(b-x)\frac{\partial}{\partial x}+\frac{\sigma^...
- 29
3
votes
3
answers
316
views
Finding a distribution family that is preserved under mixture.
Consider the following
$f_{t+1}(z)=p_{12} f_{t}(z/A)+ p_{21} f_{t}(z/B)+p_{22} f_{t}(z/(A+B))$, where $A$, $B$, and the $p$'s are constants and $f_t$ is a probability distribution. Are there any nice ...
- 457
3
votes
1
answer
159
views
Are there any known results on the probability distributions of perpetuities with power law discount rates?
Currently I am working on studying stochastic integrals of the form: $$Z_\infty = \int_0^\infty e^{-f(t)}\mathop{d}S_t$$
where $S_t$ is a Compound-Poisson process with Exponentially-distributed ...
- 33
3
votes
1
answer
214
views
Inverting the cumulative probability function to find roots of stochastic function
Given a function:
$$f[x]=a\, \Phi \left[-x+\sigma \sqrt{\tau}\right]-\left(b+c\, e^{-d \tau}\right)\Phi \left[-x\right]$$
where $\Phi$ is the cumulative density function of the standard normal ...
3
votes
0
answers
234
views
European call option pricing under mean reverting stock return
Consider the stock price process satisfies the following SDE:
$dS_t=\mu_t S_tdt + \sigma S_t dW_t , S_0=s $
and the mean return $\mu_t$ satisfies the following SDE:
$d\mu_t=(a-\mu_t)dt +dB_t, \...
- 39
3
votes
0
answers
171
views
compactness of a probability set
I have a question about the compactness of a set of martingale measures. Let $\Omega=\mathcal{C}[0,1]$ be the space of continuous functions on $[0,1]$ and $\mathcal{M}_{\Omega}$ be the family of ...
- 1,835
3
votes
0
answers
518
views
Laplace transform of a stopping time for stochastic volatility models
Let $V_t$ be a solution of the SDE
$$dV_t=V_t(rdt+\sigma_t dW_t) $$
where $\sigma_t$ satisfies some other SDE
$$d\sigma_t=\alpha(t,\sigma_t)dt+\beta(t,\sigma_t)dW^{\\ \prime}_t $$
and $W_t$ and $...
2
votes
3
answers
379
views
Compute inverse series for implicit equation $b=-\log(1-e^{-x})/x$
In financial mathematics, the inverse series of: $$b(x) = -\frac{\log(1-e^{-x})}{x}$$ is needed in order to perform fast calculation on swaptions for G2++ calibration model. (see this post for ...
- 181
2
votes
1
answer
495
views
Stochastic integral with respect to a random field
I came across a generalized Black-Scholes equation formulation in this paper.
Let me highlight the basic idea below. Consider a random field $W(t,T)$ where for a fixed $T$, $W$ is a Brownian motion ...
- 77
2
votes
1
answer
461
views
Is it safe to work on a Cadlag modification of a Feller process?
Let $f$ be a continuous bounded function.
$X$ is a Feller process, and $\hat X$ is its Cadlag modification. By the definition of the modification, one can write
$$\mathbb E[f(X_t)] = \mathbb E[f(\hat ...
- 1,399
2
votes
1
answer
254
views
Brownian Bridge under observational error
Suppose that $Z_t$ follows a simple discrete random walk $Z_t=Z_{t-1}+e_t$ , where $e_t$ are a bunch of uncorrelated normal variables with arbitrary variance sigma^2, and that there are observations ...
- 457
2
votes
0
answers
59
views
How to determine speed (rate) in large deviation principle for geometric Brownian motion
By reading Asymptotics for volatility derivatives in multi-factor rough
volatility models by Lacombe, Muguruza and Stone, I am not familiar with the way they deduce the speed (or rate) when showing ...
- 21
2
votes
0
answers
79
views
Convex optimization over compact sets defined as Aumann set-valued integrals
Let $(X,P)$ be a probability measure space. Let $K$ be a convex compact subset of $\mathbb R^d$ and let $F:X \to 2^{K}$ be a set-valued map. Assume that $F$ is:
closed (i.e $F(x)$ is closed for ...
- 6,853
2
votes
0
answers
261
views
Asymptotics of Variable Drift Ornstein–Uhlenbeck Process
The Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process is defined as the stochastic process that solves the following SDE:
$dx_t = \theta (\mu-x_t)\,dt + \sigma\, dW_t$
where $\theta>0$, $\mu$ and $\sigma>0$ are ...
- 3,626
2
votes
0
answers
263
views
A strange Weakly Compactness in $L^1 ( \Omega, \mathcal{F}, \mathbb{P})$
Hi to everyone,
The ingredients of my problem are the following:
I have a probability space $(\Omega, \mathcal{F}, \mathbb{P})$, a set (continuum cardinality) $\mathcal{Q}$ of probability measures on $...
- 21
1
vote
2
answers
3k
views
Ito's lemma in differential form
Basically you'll find two versions of ito's lemma in the literature: an integral and a differential form. The integral form is based on an Riemann-Stieltjes-integral approach, the differential form is ...
- 5,935
1
vote
1
answer
824
views
Solving an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck-like SDE $y(t,T)=H_t + \mathbb{E}[\int_t^T y(s-,T)dX_s|\mathcal{F}_t]$
I have asked a similar question involving some finance background some time ago here math.stackexchange, however no really good answer came up. I was able to find a solution at least for a special ...
- 278
1
vote
1
answer
22k
views
Covariance and standard deviation relationship
I would like to know if an increase in the covariance between two variables would imply that the standard deviation for one of the variables has increased?
This is assuming that the standard ...
- 21
1
vote
3
answers
1k
views
Matching dynamic trading strategies with derivatives
The famous Black-Scholes framework is usually derived using a hedging approach where a self-financing portfolio is constructed and the resulting stochastic differential equation is being solved under ...
- 5,935
1
vote
1
answer
770
views
Beginning books on stochastic calculus and finance [closed]
my background is mathematics i would like to do research in financial mathematics. So I read some part of wilmott's book but it required stochastic calculus. I did not understand that book. So which ...
- 11
1
vote
2
answers
134
views
Is zero a regular point for a drifted $\alpha$-stable process?
We consider 1-d process of the form $Y_{t} = bt + M_{t}^{\alpha}$,
where $M_{t}^{\alpha}$ is $\alpha$-stable process for some $\alpha
\in (0,2)$ with its levy symbol $\eta(u) = - |u|^{\alpha}.$,
and $...
- 1,399
1
vote
2
answers
240
views
market completion in stochastic volatility model
Hi all,
Consider a stochastic volatility model. As there are two sources of risk and one asset only, this is an imcomplete market. One can complete the market by considering a derivative V1 used to ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
679
views
Taylor Series expansion for an implicitely defined family of functions
Can we find a Taylor Series expansion for $y(x)$ implicitly defined by:
$$\sum _{i=1}^nA_ie^{a_ix+b_iy} = 1 ?$$
In financial mathematics, the two-additive-factors Model G2++ is commonly used for ...
- 181
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
The stock market polytope: explanation?
Ovidiu Racorean.
"Crossing stocks and the positive Grassmannian I: The Geometry behind Stock
Market."
(arXiv Abstract link)
Anyone care to offer a summary of what's going on here?
(The ...
- 151k