We compute an analytical expression for the moment generating function of the joint random vector consisting of a spot price and its discretely monitored average for a large class of square-root price dynamics. This result, combined with the Fourier transform pricing method proposed by Carr and...

In the present paper, we convert the usual <italic>n</italic>-step backward recursion that arises in option pricing into a set of independent integral equations by using a <italic>z</italic>-transform approach. In order to solve these equations, we consider different quadrature procedures that transform the integral equation...

The paper explores the fit properties of a class of multivariate Lévy processes, which are characterized as time-changed correlated Brownian motions. The time-change has a common and an idiosyncratic component, to re ect the properties of trade, which it represents. The resulting process may...

The paper presents an overview of financial applications of copulas. Copulas permit to represent joint distribution functions by splitting the marginal behavior, embedded in the marginal distributions, from the dependence, captured by the copula itself. The splitting proves to be very helpful...

This paper studies Value at Risk (VaR) bounds for sums of stochastically dependent random variables, i.e. portfolios of correlated financial assets. The bounds hold under no restrictions on the dependence or on the marginal distributions of returns. An improvement of the bounds is given for...

As an extension of the VaR-constrained hedging, we propose a closed-form solution to the problem of optimizing portfolios, based on price and weather. For electric power companies, price and quantity are volatile, and in hydro-electricity generation quantity can be related to weather conditions....

This paper presents a family of processes to model electricity spot prices in deregulated markets. Besides mean-reversion, a property they share with other comodities, power prices exhibit the unique feature of spikes in trajectories. We introduce a class of discontinuous processes exhibiting a...