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Using options prices to infer PDF'S for asset prices: an application to oil prices during the Gulf crisis

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Author Info
William R. Melick
Charles P. Thomas

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Abstract

We develop a general method to infer martingale equivalent probability density functions (PDFs) for asset prices using American options prices. The early exercise feature of American options precludes expressing the option price in terms of the PDF of the price of the underlying asset. We derive tight bounds for the option price in terms of the PDF and demonstrate how these bounds, together with observed option prices, can be used to estimate the parameters of the PDF. We infer the distribution for the price of crude oil during the Persian Gulf crisis and find the distribution differs significantly from that recovered using standard techniques.

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Paper provided by Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.) in its series International Finance Discussion Papers with number 541.

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Date of creation: 1996
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:541

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Related research
Keywords: Power resources - Prices ; Options (Finance) ; Persian Gulf War; 1991;

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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. Jarrow, Robert & Rudd, Andrew, 1982. "Approximate option valuation for arbitrary stochastic processes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 347-369, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Perrakis, Stylianos & Ryan, Peter J, 1984. " Option Pricing Bounds in Discrete Time," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(2), pages 519-25, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Yacine Ait-Sahalia & Andrew W. Lo, 1995. "Nonparametric Estimation of State-Price Densities Implicit in Financial Asset Prices," NBER Working Papers 5351, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. William R. Melick & Charles P. Thomas, 1992. "War and peace: recovering the market's probability distribution of crude oil futures prices during the Gulf crisis," International Finance Discussion Papers 437, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  5. MacKinnon, James G, 1992. "Model Specification Tests and Artificial Regressions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 102-46, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Black, Fischer, 1976. "The pricing of commodity contracts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 167-179. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. James A. Overdahl & H. Lee Matthews, 1988. "The Use of NYMEX Options to Forecast Crude Oil Prices," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 9(4), pages 135-148.
  8. Levy, Haim, 1985. " Upper and Lower Bounds of Put and Call Option Value: Stochastic Dominance Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1197-1217, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Lo, Andrew W., 1987. "Semi-parametric upper bounds for option prices and expected payoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 373-387, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. 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)
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Cited by:
(explanations, 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. Sheri Markose & Amadeo Alentorn, 2005. "Option Pricing and the Implied Tail Index with the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) Distribution," Computing in Economics and Finance 2005 397, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
  2. Sheri Markose & Amadeo Alentorn, 2005. "The Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) Distribution, Implied Tail Index and Option Pricing," Economics Discussion Papers 594, University of Essex, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Bronka Rzepkowski, 2001. "Heterogeneous Expectations, Currency Options and the Euro/Dollar Exchange Rate," Working Papers 2001-03, CEPII research center. [Downloadable!]
  4. Michael P. Leahy & Charles P. Thomas, 1996. "The sovereignty option: the Quebec referendum and market views on the Canadian dollar," International Finance Discussion Papers 555, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  5. Jose M. Campa & P. H. Kevin Chang, 1997. "The Forecasting Ability of Correlations Implied in Foreign Exchange Options," NBER Working Papers 5974, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Amadeo Alentorn & Sheri Markose, 2006. "Removing Maturity Effects of Implied Risk Neutral Densities and Related Statistics," Economics Discussion Papers 609, University of Essex, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Bronka Rzepkowski, 2000. "The Expectations of a Hong Kong Dollar Devaluation and their Determinants," Working Papers 2000-04, CEPII research center. [Downloadable!]
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