PERFORMANCE OF ROBUST HEDGES FOR DIGITAL DOUBLE BARRIER OPTIONS

We analyze the performance of robust hedging strategies of digital double barrier options of Cox and Obłój (2011) against that of traditional hedging methods such as delta and delta/vega hedging. Digital double barrier options are financial derivative contracts which pay out a fixed amount on the condition that the underlying asset remains within or breaks into a range defined by two distinct barrier levels. We perform the analysis in hypothetical forward markets driven by models with stochastic volatility and jumps, calibrated to the AUD/USD foreign exchange rate market. Our findings are strikingly unanimous and suggest that, in the presence of model uncertainty and/or transaction costs, robust hedging strategies typically outperform in a substantial way model-specific hedging methods.