Pricing Derivative Securities

This book presents techniques for valuing derivative securities at a level suitable for practitioners, students in doctoral programs in economics and finance, and those in masters-level programs in financial mathematics and computational finance. It provides the necessary mathematical tools from analysis, probability theory, the theory of stochastic processes, and stochastic calculus, making extensive use of examples. It also covers pricing theory, with emphasis on martingale methods. The chapters are organized around the assumptions made about the dynamics of underlying price processes. Readers begin with simple, discrete-time models that require little mathematical sophistication, proceed to the basic Black-Scholes theory, and then advance to continuous-time models with multiple risk sources. The second edition takes account of the major developments in the field since 2000. New topics include the use of simulation to price American-style derivatives, a new one-step approach to pricing options by inverting characteristic functions, and models that allow jumps in volatility and Markov-driven changes in regime. The new chapter on interest-rate derivatives includes extensive coverage of the LIBOR market model and an introduction to the modeling of credit risk. As a supplement to the text, the book contains an accompanying CD-ROM with user-friendly FORTRAN, C++, and VBA program components.

CD-ROM contains: MAPLE student version 5.0; online version of text; MATLAB GUI; IDEAL software (embedded in online text).

The book presents applications of stochastic calculus to derivative security pricing and interest rate modelling. By focusing more on the financial intuition of the applications rather than the mathematical formalities, the book provides the essential knowledge and understanding of fundamental concepts of stochastic finance, and how to implement them to develop pricing models for derivatives as well as to model spot and forward interest rates. Furthermore an extensive overview of the associated literature is presented and its relevance and applicability are discussed. Most of the key concepts are covered including Ito’s Lemma, martingales, Girsanov’s theorem, Brownian motion, jump processes, stochastic volatility, American feature and binomial trees. The book is beneficial to higher-degree research students, academics and practitioners as it provides the elementary theoretical tools to apply the techniques of stochastic finance in research or industrial problems in the field.

During 1995 the Isaac Newton Institute for the Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University hosted a six month research program on financial mathematics. During this period more than 300 scholars and financial practitioners attended to conduct research and to attend more than 150 research seminars. Many of the presented papers were on the subject of financial derivatives. The very best were selected to appear in this volume. They range from abstract financial theory to practical issues pertaining to the pricing and hedging of interest rate derivatives and exotic options in the market place. Hence this book will be of interest to both academic scholars and financial engineers.

A rigorous introduction to the mathematics of pricing, construction and hedging of derivative securities.

Accessible and intuitive, Derivative Securities offers advanced undergraduates, MBA students, and executives the theory and practical tools needed to price and hedge derivatives in the professional marketplace. Written by two of the foremost derivative pricing experts in the world, this text makes the theory and practice of pricing and hedging derivative securities accessible without watering down the material. Presentation is complete yet avoids advanced mathematics. Equal coverage is given to options pricing theory and futures pricing theory, and cutting-edge derivatives research is incorporated throughout. Derivatives pricing software is bound with each text.