The Potential Approach to Bond and Currency Pricing

In this paper, we begin the modeling of bond and currency prices from the modeling of the state-price density satisfying basic properties of a potential. We provide extensive examples and show their implications on bond and currency pricing. Most classic short rate models are special cases of this general approach. We also investigate the connection to the Heath, Jarrow, and Morton model. One advantage of the potential approach resides in its ease in simultaneously modeling the yield curves of many countries and their exchange rates. The properties of exchange rates under each example are derived and we illustrate their possibility in explaining the forward premium puzzle.