Arbitrage between puts struck at 80 and 90
Question
On the same stock and with the same expiry, a European put with strike sells for $8 and a European put with strike sells for $9. Can you make an arbitrage profit?
Short answer
Yes. Buy puts at and sell puts at : the cost is . At expiry the payoff is if , for , and below , so you never lose and gain whenever the stock ends below . The underlying rule: put prices are convex in strike with , so must be strictly below when the stock can finish below .
Adapted from Zhou, A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews, sec. 6.1 Option Pricing, 'American vs European options B', p.140; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Duration and Convexity: Measuring and Managing Interest Rate Sensitivity
- Jensen's Inequality and Convexity
- Option Mechanics: Calls, Puts, Moneyness, Intrinsic Value, and Exchange vs. OTC Markets
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