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Choosing between annual and daily volatility for hedging

Question

A stock's returns mean-revert. Measured on annual returns its volatility is 10%10\%, but measured on daily returns (and then annualised) it is 20%20\%. You have sold a European option and will delta-hedge it daily. Which volatility should you use?

Short answer

20%20\%, the daily volatility. Hedging P&L comes from gamma times the realised squared moves between rebalances, so what you pay for is the volatility of the small moves you actually hedge through. Mean reversion makes long-horizon variance smaller, but that does not reduce the cost of daily re-hedging.

Adapted from Joshi, Denson & Downes, Quant Job Interview Questions and Answers, Q2.41, p.20; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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