Seongjoo Song

A quantile estimation for massive data with generalized Pareto distribution

This paper proposes a new method of estimating extreme quantiles of heavy-tailed distributions for massive data. The method utilizes the Peak Over Threshold (POT) method with generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) that is commonly used to estimate extreme quantiles and the parameter estimation of GPD using the empirical distribution function (EDF) and nonlinear least squares (NLS). We first estimate the parameters of GPD using EDF and NLS and then, estimate multiple high quantiles for massive data based on observations over a certain threshold value using the conventional POT. The simulation results demonstrate that our parameter estimation method has a smaller Mean square error (MSE) than other common methods when the shape parameter of GPD is at least 0. The estimated quantiles also show the best performance in terms of root MSE (RMSE) and absolute relative bias (ARB) for heavy-tailed distributions.

Insiders' hedging in a jump diffusion model

In this paper, we formulate the optimal hedging problem when the underlying stock price has jumps, especially for insiders who have more information than the general public. The jumps in the underlying price process depend on another diffusion process, which models a sequence of firm-specific information. This diffusion process is observed only by insiders. Nevertheless, the market is incomplete to insiders as well as to the general public. We use the local risk minimization method to find an optimal hedging strategy for insiders. We also numerically compare the value of the insiders hedging portfolio with the value of an honest traders hedging portfolio for a simulated sample path of a stock price.

Estimating the mixing proportion in a semiparametric mixture model

In this paper, we investigate methods of estimating the mixing proportion in the case when one of the probability densities is not specified analytically in a mixture model. The methodology we propose is motivated by a sequential clustering algorithm. After a sequential clustering algorithm finds the center of a cluster, the next step is to identify observations belonging to that cluster. If we assume that the center of the cluster is known and that the distribution of observations not belonging to the cluster is unknown, the problem of identifying observations in the cluster is similar to the problem of estimating the mixing proportion in a special two-component mixture model. The mixing proportion can be considered as the proportion of observations belonging to the cluster. We propose two estimators for parameters in the model and compare the performance of these two estimators in several different cases.

Computation of estimates in segmented regression and a liquidity effect model

Weighted least squares (WLS) estimation in segmented regression with multiple change points is considered. A computationally efficient algorithm for calculating the WLS estimate of a single change point is derived. Then, iterative methods of approximating the global solution of the multiple change-point problem based on estimating change points one-at-a-time are discussed. It is shown that these results can also be applied to a liquidity effect model in finance with multiple change points. The liquidity effect model we consider is a generalization of one proposed by Cetin et al. [2006. Pricing options in an extended Black Scholes economy with illiquidity: theory and empirical evidence. Rev. Financial Stud. 19, 493-529], allowing that the magnitude of liquidity effect depends on the size of a trade. Two data sets are used to illustrate these methods.

Value at Risk with Peaks over Threshold: Comparison Study of Parameter Estimation

The importance of financial risk management has been highlighted after several recent incidences of global financial crisis. One of the issues in financial risk management is how to measure the risk; currently, the most widely used risk measure is the Value at Risk(VaR). We can consider to estimate VaR using extreme value theory if the financial data have heavy tails as the recent market trend. In this paper, we study estimations of VaR using Peaks over Threshold(POT), which is a common method of modeling fat-tailed data using extreme value theory. To use POT, we first estimate parameters of the Generalized Pareto Distribution(GPD). Here, we compare three different methods of estimating parameters of GPD by comparing the performance of the estimated VaR based on KOSPI 5 minute-data. In addition, we simulate data from normal inverse Gaussian distributions and examine two parameter estimation methods of GPD. We find that the recent methods of parameter estimation of GPD work better than the maximum likelihood estimation when the kurtosis of the return distribution of KOSPI is very high and the simulation experiment shows similar results.

Nonlinear Regression for an Asymptotic Option Price

This paper approaches the problem of option pricing in an incomplete market, where the underlying asset price process follows a compound Poisson model. We assume that the price process follows a compound Poisson model under an equivalent martingale measure and it converges weakly to the Black-Scholes model. First, we express the option price as the expectation of the discounted payoff and expand it at the Black-Scholes price to obtain a pricing formula with three unknown parameters. Then we estimate those parameters using the market option data. This method can use the option data on the same stock with different expiration dates and different strike prices.

Comparison of methods of approximating option prices with Variance gamma processes

We consider several methods to approximate option prices with correction terms to the Black-Scholes option price. These methods are able to compute option prices from various risk-neutral distributions using relatively small data and simple computation. In this paper, we compare the performance of Edgeworth expansion, A-type and C-type Gram-Charlier expansions, a method of using Normal inverse gaussian distribution, and an asymptotic method of using nonlinear regression through simulation experiments and real KOSPI200 option data. We assume the variance gamma model in the simulation experiment, which has a closed-form solution for the option price among the pure jump Levy processes. As a result, we found that methods to approximate an option price directly from the approximate price formula are better than methods to approximate option prices through the approximate risk-neutral density function. The method to approximate option prices by nonlinear regression showed relatively better performance among those compared.

Option Pricing with Bounded Expected Loss under Variance-Gamma Processes

Exponential Levy models have become popular in modeling price processes recently in mathematical finance. Although it is a relatively simple extension of the geometric Brownian motion, it makes the market incomplete so that the option price is not uniquely determined. As a trial to find an appropriate price for an option, we suppose a situation where a hedger wants to initially invest as little as possible, but wants to have the expected squared loss at the end not exceeding a certain constant. For this, we assume that the underlying price process follows a variance-gamma model and it converges to a geometric Brownian motion as its quadratic variation converges to a constant. In the limit, we use the mean-variance approach to find the asymptotic minimum investment with the expected squared loss bounded. Some numerical results are also provided.

A note on convergence of an approximate hedging portfolio with liquidity risk

When the underlying asset price depends on activities of traders, hedging errors include costs due to the illiquidity of the underlying asset and the size of this cost can be substantial. Cetin et al. (2004), Liquidity risk and arbitrage pricing theory, Finance and Stochastics, 8(3), 311-341, proposed a hedging strategy that approximates the classical Black–Scholes hedging strategy and produces zero liquidity costs. Here, we compute the rate of convergence of the final value of this hedging portfolio to the option payoff in case of a European call option; i.e. we see how fast its hedging error converges to zero. The hedging strategy studied here is meaningful due to its simple liquidity cost structure and its smoothness relative to the classical Black–Scholes delta.