This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

The Risk-Neutral Measure and Option Pricing under Log-Stable Uncertainty

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
J. Huston McCulloch
Abstract

The fact that the expected payoffs on assets and call options are infinite under most log-stable distributions led Paul Samuelson and Robert Merton to conjecture that assets and derivatives could not be reasonably priced under these distributions, despite their many other attractive features. This paper demonstrates that when the observed distribution of future prices is log-stable, the Risk Neutral Measure (RNM) under which asset and derivative prices may be computed as expectations is not itself log-stable in the problematic cases. Instead, the RNM is determined by the convolution of two densities, one negatively skewed stable, and the other an exponentially tilted positively skewed stable. The resulting RNM gives finite expected payoffs, and therefore demonstrates that these fears were in fact unfounded. Carr and Madan (1999) have shown how the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) can be used to quickly evaluate options directly from the characteristic function of any RNM. The log-stable RNM characteristic function presented here therefore greatly facilitates the pricing of options on log-stable assets, by means of this new methodology, provided a Romberg adaptation of the FFT is employed. The full paper is at .

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/papers/rnm.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function: main text
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Econometric Society in its series Econometric Society 2004 North American Winter Meetings with number 428.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation: 11 Aug 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ecm:nawm04:428

Contact details of provider:
Phone: 1 212 998 3820
Fax: 1 212 995 4487
Email:
Web page: http://www.econometricsociety.org/pastmeetings.asp
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christopher F. Baum).

Related research
Keywords: Stable distributions; risk-neutral measure; pricing kernel; option pricing; FFT; Romberg FFT;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. McCulloch, J. Huston, 1985. "Interest-risk sensitive deposit insurance premia : Stable ACH estimates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 137-156, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Peter Carr & Liuren Wu, 2003. "The Finite Moment Log Stable Process and Option Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 753-778, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Alvaro Cartea & Sam Howison, 2002. "Distinguished Limits of Levy-Stable Processes, and Applications to Option Pricing," OFRC Working Papers Series 2002mf04, Oxford Financial Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
  4. Smith, Clifford Jr., 1976. "Option pricing : A review," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 3-51. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Mehra, Rajnish & Prescott, Edward C., 1985. "The equity premium: A puzzle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 145-161, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Merton, Robert C., 1976. "Option pricing when underlying stock returns are discontinuous," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 125-144. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. 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 637-54, May-June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? Over five million full texts a year are downloaded through IDEAS.

This page was last updated on 2010-1-24.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.