This book presents new computation schemes for the sensitivity of options using the binomial tree and introduces readers to the discrete Malliavin calculus. It also shows that applications of the discrete Malliavin calculus approach to the binomial tree model offer fundamental tools for computing Greeks. The binomial tree approach is one of the most popular methods in option pricing. Although it is a fairly traditional model for option pricing, it is still widely used in financial institutions since it is tractable and easy to understand. However, the book shows that the tree approach also offers a powerful tool for deriving the Greeks for options. Greeks are quantities that represent the sensitivities of the price of derivative securities with respect to changes in the underlying asset price or parameters. The Malliavin calculus, the stochastic methods of variations, is one of the most popular tools used to derive Greeks. However, it is also very difficult to understand for most students and practitioners because it is based on complex mathematics. To help readers more easily understand the Malliavin calculus, the book introduces the discrete Malliavin calculus, a theory of the functional for the Bernoulli random walk. The discrete Malliavin calculus is significantly easier to understand, because the functional space of the Bernoulli random walk is realized in a finite dimensional space. As such, it makes this valuable tool far more accessible for a broad readership.

A comprehensive overview of weak convergence of stochastic processes and its application to the study of financial markets. Split into three parts, the first recalls the mathematics of stochastic processes and stochastic calculus with special emphasis on contiguity properties and weak convergence of stochastic integrals. The second part is devoted to the analysis of financial theory from the convergence point of view. The main problems, which include portfolio optimization, option pricing and hedging are examined, especially when considering discrete-time approximations of continuous-time dynamics. The third part deals with lattice- and tree-based computational procedures for option pricing both on stocks and stochastic bonds. More general discrete approximations are also introduced and detailed. Includes detailed examples.

The book gives a systematical presentation of stochastic approximation methods for discrete time Markov price processes. Advanced methods combining backward recurrence algorithms for computing of option rewards and general results on convergence of stochastic space skeleton and tree approximations for option rewards are applied to a variety of models of multivariate modulated Markov price processes. The principal novelty of presented results is based on consideration of multivariate modulated Markov price processes and general pay-off functions, which can depend not only on price but also an additional stochastic modulating index component, and use of minimal conditions of smoothness for transition probabilities and pay-off functions, compactness conditions for log-price processes and rate of growth conditions for pay-off functions. The volume presents results on structural studies of optimal stopping domains, Monte Carlo based approximation reward algorithms, and convergence of American-type options for autoregressive and continuous time models, as well as results of the corresponding experimental studies.

An Important aspect of Mathematical Finance is the pricing of stocks and other assets. Mathematical techniques using stochastic differential equations were developed in the 1970's that led to a breakthrough in the field and enabled the provision of insurance against loss and the provision of a degree of certainty in financial transactions that was unavailable previously. The pricing of assets changes as initial prices, volatility, interest rates and time to maturity change, and there are important other quantities which have an influence on prices. To guard against loss it is essential to know precisely how prices change as these quantities vary. Unfortunately, stochastic and other complexities make this difficult to do. A method of calculation known as the Malliavin calculus has been used in many papers to provide methods for such calculations. This monograph provides a comprehensive outline of the relevant portions of the calculus and its applications to finance, as well as of several important extensions, and uses it to obtain new results which will assist in this much used analysis.