Calculus route to digital option prices
Question
Sketch how calculus yields Black-Scholes prices for an asset-or-nothing digital (pays if ) and a cash-or-nothing digital (pays if ).
Short answer
Cash-or-nothing ; asset-or-nothing . Write each as a risk-neutral expectation integrated over the lognormal density above : the cash digital is just the discounted probability , and for the asset digital completing the square in the exponent (equivalently, switching to the stock measure) gives . Alternatively, differentiate the call price: , and the call is asset digital minus cash digitals.
Adapted from Crack, Heard on the Street, Q2.35, p.29; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.
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