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Arbitrage between puts struck at 80 and 90

Question

On the same stock and with the same expiry, a European put with strike 8080 sells for $8 and a European put with strike 9090 sells for $9. Can you make an arbitrage profit?

Short answer

Yes. Buy 88 puts at 9090 and sell 99 puts at 8080: the cost is 72−72=072-72=0. At expiry the payoff is 00 if ST≥90S_T\ge90, 8(90−ST)>08(90-S_T)>0 for 80≤ST<9080\le S_T<90, and ST>0S_T>0 below 8080, so you never lose and gain whenever the stock ends below 9090. The underlying rule: put prices are convex in strike with P(0)=0P(0)=0, so P(80)P(80) must be strictly below 8090P(90)=8\tfrac{80}{90}P(90)=8 when the stock can finish below 9090.

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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