We present a quasi-analytical method for pricing multi-dimensional American options based on interpolating two arbitrage bounds, along the lines of Johnson (1983). Our method allows for the close examination of the interpolation parameter on a rigorous theoretical footing instead of empirical...

I first introduce the early-stage and modern classical asset pricing and portfolio theories. These include: the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), the arbitrage pricing theory (APT), the consumption capital asset pricing model (CCAPM), the intertemporal capital asset pricing model (ICAPM), and...

Since its introduction by Owen in [29, 30], the empirical likelihood method has been extensively investigated and widely used to construct confidence regions and to test hypotheses in the literature. For a large class of statistics that can be obtained via solving estimating equations, the...

We provide two new closed-form approximation methods for pricing spread options on a basket of risky assets: the extended Kirk approximation and the second-order boundary approximation. Numerical analysis shows that while the latter method is more accurate than the former, both methods are...

Asset price bubbles can arise unintentionally when one uses continuous-time diffusion processes to model financial quantities. We propose a flexible damped diffusion framework that is able to break many types of bubbles and preserve the martingale pricing approach. Damping can be done on either...

It is known that actual option prices deviate from the Black-Scholes formula using the same volatility for different strikes. For the S&P 500 index options, we find that these deviations follow a stable pattern and are described by a simple function of at-the-money-forward total volatility. This...

We develop an asymptotic expansion technique for pricing timer options under general stochastic volatility models around small volatility of variance. Closed-form approximation formulas have been obtained for the Heston model and the 3/2-model. The approximation has an easy-to-understand...

We study the risk index of an additive gamble proposed in Aumann and Serrano (2008).We establish a generalized duality result for this index and use it to prove Yaari's (1969) alternative characterization of DARA utilities. A new characterization result for the risk index is obtained through...

Many derivatives products are directly or indirectly associated with integrated diffusion processes. We develop a general perturbation method to price those derivatives. We show that for any positive diffusion process, the hitting time of its integrated process is approximately normally...

We develop an approximation technique for pricing finite-maturity timer options under Heston-like stochastic volatility models. By approximating the distributions of the accumulated variance and the random variance budget exceeding time, we obtain analytic expressions for timer option prices...