A master equation approach to option pricing

A master equation approach to the numerical solution of option pricing models is developed. The basic idea of the approach is to consider the Black--Scholes equation as the macroscopic equation of an underlying mesoscopic stochastic option price variable. The dynamics of the latter is constructed and formulated in terms of a master equation. The numerical efficiency of the approach is demonstrated by means of stochastic simulation of the mesoscopic process for both European and American options.