We provide a test of the Monday effect in daily stock index returns. Unlike previous studies we define the Monday effect based on the stochastic dominance criterion. This is a stronger criterion than those based on comparing means used in previous work and has a well defined economic meaning. We...

Risk premia are related to price probability ratios or for continuous time pure jump processes the ratios of jump arrival rates under the pricing and physical measures. The variance gamma model is employed to synthesize densities with risk premia seen as the ratio of the three parameters. The...

Index option pricing on world market indices are investigated using Lévy processes with no positive jumps. Economically this is motivated by the possible absence of longer horizon short positions while mathematically we are able to evaluate for such processes the probability of a Rally Before a...

At each maturity a discrete return distribution is inferred from option prices. Option pricing models imply a comparable theoretical distribution. As both the transformed data and the option pricing model deliver points on a simplex, the data is statistically modeled by a Dirichlet distribution...

Minimal discounted distorted expectations across a range of stress levels are employed to model risk acceptability in markets. Interactions between discounting and stress levels used in measure changes are accommodated by lowering discount rates for the higher stress levels. Acceptability...

It is argued that the growth in the breadth of option strikes traded after the financial crisis of 2008 poses difficulties for the use of Fourier inversion methodologies in volatility surface calibration. Continuous time Markov chain approximations are proposed as an alternative. They are shown...

An argument for adjusting Black Scholes implied call deltas downwards for a gamma exposure in a left skewed market is presented. It is shown that when the objective for the hedge is the conservation of capital ignoring the gamma for the delta position is expensive. The gamma adjustment factor in...

Stochastic volatility and jumps are viewed as arising from Brownian subordination given here by an independent purely discontinuous process and we inquire into the relation between the realized variance or quadratic variation of the process and the time change. The class of models considered...

It is argued that the growth in the breadth of option strikes traded after the financial crisis of 2008 poses difficulties for the use of Fourier inversion methodologies in volatility surface calibration. Continuous time Markov chain approximations are proposed as an alternative. They are shown...

An argument for adjusting Black Scholes implied call deltas downwards for a gamma exposure in a left skewed market is presented. It is shown that when the objective for the hedge is the conservation of capital ignoring the gamma for the delta position is expensive. The gamma adjustment factor in...