Touch-anytime versus at-expiry digital at 30
Question
Interest rates are zero and a stock trades at . Contract A pays if the stock goes above at any time during the next year; contract B pays only if the stock is above at the end of the year. Compare their values.
Short answer
A is worth more: a little over twice B. Any path finishing above must have crossed it, so A dominates B. By the reflection principle, a path that has reached is about equally likely to end above or below it; exactly, A with while B , and since a driftless lognormal stock is slightly more likely to end below after touching it, A exceeds .
Adapted from Joshi, Denson & Downes, Quant Job Interview Questions and Answers, Q2.15, p.17; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.
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