The main motivation behind writing this thesis was to construct numerical methods to approximate solutions to differential equations driven by rough paths, where the solution is considered in the rough path-sense. Rough paths of inhomogeneous degree of smoothness as driving noise are considered. We also aimed to find applications of these numerical methods to stochastic differential equations. After sketching the core ideas of the Rough Paths Theory in Chapter 1, the versions of the core theorems corresponding to the inhomogeneous degree of smoothness case are stated and proved in Chapter 2 along with some auxiliary claims on the continuity of the solution in a certain sense, including an RDE-version of Gronwall's lemma. In Chapter 3, numerical schemes for approximating solutions to differential equations driven by rough paths of inhomogeneous degree of smoothness are constructed. We start with setting up some principles of approximations. Then a general class of local approximations is introduced. This class is used to construct global approximations by pasting together the local ones. A general sufficient condition on the local approximations implying global convergence is given and proved. The next step is to construct particular local approximations in finite dimensions based on solutions to ordinary differential equations derived locally and satisfying the sufficient condition for global convergence. These local approximations require strong conditions on the one-form defining the rough differential equation. Finally, we show that when the local ODE-based schemes are applied in combination with rough polynomial approximations, the conditions on the one-form can be weakened. In Chapter 4, the results of Gyurko & Lyons (2010) on path-wise approximation of solutions to stochastic differential equations are recalled and extended to the truncated signature level of the solution. Furthermore, some practical considerations related to the implementation of high order schemes are described. The effectiveness of the derived schemes is demonstrated on numerical examples. In Chapter 5, the background theory of the Kusuoka-Lyons-Victoir (KLV) family of weak approximations is recalled and linked to the results of Chapter 4. We highlight how the different versions of the KLV family are related. Finally, a numerical evaluation of the autonomous ODE-based versions of the family is carried out, focusing on SDEs in dimensions up to 4, using cubature formulas of different degrees and several high order numerical ODE solvers. We demonstrate the effectiveness and the occasional non-effectiveness of the numerical approximations in cases when the KLV family is used in its original version and also when used in combination with partial sampling methods (Monte-Carlo, TBBA) and Romberg extrapolation.

Recently, the financial world witnessed a series of major defaults by several institutions and investment banks. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that credit risk analysis have turned out to be one of the most important aspect among the finance community. As credit derivatives are long term instruments, it is affected by the changes in the market conditions. Thus, it is a appropriate to take into consideration the effects of the market economy. This thesis addresses some of the important issues in credit risk analysis in a regime switching market. The main contribution in this thesis are the followings: (1) We determine the price of default able bonds in a regime switching market for structural models with European type payoff. We use the method of quadratic hedging and minimal martingale measure to determine the defaultble bond prices. We also obtain hedging strategies and the corresponding residual risks in these models. The defaultable bond prices are obtained as solution to a system of PDEs (partial differential equations) with appropriate terminal and boundary conditions. We show the existence and uniqueness of the system of PDEs on an appropriate domain. (2) We carry out a similar analysis in a regime switching market for the reduced form models. We extend some of the existing models in the literature for correlated default timings. We price single-name and multi-name credit derivatives using our regime switching models. The prices are obtained as solution to a system of ODEs(ordinary differential equations) with appropriate terminal conditions. (3) The price of the credit derivatives in our regime switching models are obtained as solutions to a system of ODEs/PDEs subject to appropriate terminal and boundary conditions. We solve these ODEs/PDEs numerically and compare the relative behavior of the credit derivative prices with and without regime switching. We observe higher spread in our regime switching models. This resolves the low spread discrepancy that were prevalent in the classical structural models. We show further applications of our model by capturing important phenomena that arises frequently in the financial market. For instance, we model the business cycle, tight liquidity situations and the effects of firm restructuring. We indicate how our models may be extended to price various other credit derivatives.

In mathematical finance, the sensitivities of option prices to various market parameters, also known as the “Greeks”, reflect the exposure to different sources of risk. Computing these is essential to predict the impact of market moves on portfolios and to hedge them adequately. This is commonly done using Monte Carlo simulations. However, obtaining accurate estimates of the Greeks can be computationally costly. Multilevel Monte Carlo offers complexity improvements over standard Monte Carlo techniques. However the idea has never been used for the computation of Greeks. In this work we answer the following questions: can multilevel Monte Carlo be useful in this setting? If so, how can we construct efficient estimators? Finally, what computational savings can we expect from these new estimators? We develop multilevel Monte Carlo estimators for the Greeks of a range of options: European options with Lipschitz payoffs (e.g. call options), European options with discontinuous payoffs (e.g. digital options), Asian options, barrier options and lookback options. Special care is taken to construct efficient estimators for non-smooth and exotic payoffs. We obtain numerical results that demonstrate the computational benefits of our algorithms. We discuss the issues of convergence of pathwise sensitivities estimators. We show rigorously that the differentiation of common discretisation schemes for Ito processes does result in satisfactory estimators of the the exact solutions’ sensitivities. We also prove that pathwise sensitivities estimators can be used under some regularity conditions to compute the Greeks of options whose underlying asset’s price is modelled as an Ito process. We present several important results on the moments of the solutions of stochastic differential equations and their discretisations as well as the principles of the so-called “extreme path analysis”. We use these to develop a rigorous analysis of the complexity of the multilevel Monte Carlo Greeks estimators constructed earlier. The resulting complexity bounds appear to be sharp and prove that our multilevel algorithms are more efficient than those derived from standard Monte Carlo.

The theoretical study of nonlinear expectations is the focus of attention for applications in a variety of different fields — often with the objective to model systems under incomplete information. Especially in mathematical finance, advances in the theory of sublinear expectations (also referred to as coherent risk measures) lay the theoretical foundation for modern approaches to evaluations under the presence of Knightian uncertainty. In this book, we introduce and study a large class of jump-type processes for sublinear expectations, which can be interpreted as Lévy-type processes under uncertainty in their characteristics. Moreover, we establish an existence and uniqueness theory for related nonlinear, nonlocal Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations with non-dominated jump terms.

Cette thèse traite de problèmes de dépendance entre processus stochastiques en temps continu. Ces résultats sont appliqués à la modélisation et à la gestion des risques des marchés de l'électricité.Dans une première partie, de nouvelles copules sont établies pour modéliser la dépendance entre deux mouvements Browniens et contrôler la distribution de leur différence. On montre que la classe des copules admissibles pour les Browniens contient des copules asymétriques. Avec ces copules, la fonction de survie de la différence des deux Browniens est plus élevée dans sa partie positive qu'avec une dépendance gaussienne. Les résultats sont appliqués à la modélisation jointe des prix de l'électricité et d'autres commodités énergétiques. Dans une seconde partie, nous considérons un processus stochastique observé de manière discrète et défini par la somme d'une semi-martingale continue et d'un processus de Poisson composé avec retour à la moyenne. Une procédure d'estimation pour le paramètre de retour à la moyenne est proposée lorsque celui-ci est élevé dans un cadre de statistique haute fréquence en horizon fini. Ces résultats sont utilisés pour la modélisation des pics dans les prix de l'électricité.Dans une troisième partie, on considère un processus de Poisson doublement stochastique dont l'intensité stochastique est une fonction d'une semi-martingale continue. Pour estimer cette fonction, un estimateur à polynômes locaux est utilisé et une méthode de sélection de la fenêtre est proposée menant à une inégalité oracle. Un test est proposé pour déterminer si la fonction d'intensité appartient à une certaine famille paramétrique. Grâce à ces résultats, on modélise la dépendance entre l'intensité des pics de prix de l'électricité et de facteurs exogènes tels que la production éolienne. / In this thesis, we study some dependence modeling problems between continuous time stochastic processes. These results are applied to the modeling and risk management of electricity markets. In a first part, we propose new copulae to model the dependence between two Brownian motions and to control the distribution of their difference. We show that the class of admissible copulae for the Brownian motions contains asymmetric copulae. These copulae allow for the survival function of the difference between two Brownian motions to have higher value in the right tail than in the Gaussian copula case. Results are applied to the joint modeling of electricity and other energy commodity prices. In a second part, we consider a stochastic process which is a sum of a continuous semimartingale and a mean reverting compound Poisson process and which is discretely observed. An estimation procedure is proposed for the mean reversion parameter of the Poisson process in a high frequency framework with finite time horizon, assuming this parameter is large. Results are applied to the modeling of the spikes in electricity prices time series. In a third part, we consider a doubly stochastic Poisson process with stochastic intensity function of a continuous semimartingale. A local polynomial estimator is considered in order to infer the intensity function and a method is given to select the optimal bandwidth. An oracle inequality is derived. Furthermore, a test is proposed in order to determine if the intensity function belongs to some parametrical family. Using these results, we model the dependence between the intensity of electricity spikes and exogenous factors such as the wind production.

The theoretical study of nonlinear expectations is the focus of attention for applications in a variety of different fields — often with the objective to model systems under incomplete information. Especially in mathematical finance, advances in the theory of sublinear expectations (also referred to as coherent risk measures) lay the theoretical foundation for modern approaches to evaluations under the presence of Knightian uncertainty. In this book, we introduce and study a large class of jump-type processes for sublinear expectations, which can be interpreted as Lévy-type processes under uncertainty in their characteristics. Moreover, we establish an existence and uniqueness theory for related nonlinear, nonlocal Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations with non-dominated jump terms.