Pricing with volatility that varies over time
Question
Suppose a stock's volatility is not constant but a known deterministic function . How do you price and hedge a European option on it?
Short answer
Use Black-Scholes with the root-mean-square volatility over the remaining life. Log-returns are still normal, with variance , so the price is the Black-Scholes formula with . Hedge with the corresponding delta, recomputed at each date with the variance still to come.
Adapted from Joshi, Denson & Downes, Quant Job Interview Questions and Answers, Q2.5, p.16; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- The Black-Scholes PDE, Formula and Implied Volatility
- Derivation — From Binomial Trees to Black-Scholes in the Continuous Limit
- The Black-Scholes Formula Derived via Change of Measure
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