Cette thèse développe une approche trajectorielle pour la modélisation des marchés financiers en temps continu, sans faire appel à des hypothèses probabilistes ou à des modèles stochastiques. À l'aide du calcul fonctionnel non-anticipatif, nous identifions une classe spéciale de stratégies de trading que nous prouvons être auto-finançantes, selon une notion trajectorielle introduite dans cette thèse, et dont le gain peut être calculé trajectoire par trajectoire comme limite de sommes de Riemann. Avec ces outils, nous proposons un cadre analytique pour analyser la performance et la robustesse de stratégies de couverture dynamique de produits dérivés path-dependent sur en ensemble de scénarios. Ce cadre ne demande aucune hypothèse probabiliste sur la dynamique du processus sous-jacent. Il généralise donc les résultats précédents sur la robustesse de stratégies de couverture dans des modèles de diffusion. Nous obtenons une formule explicite pour l'erreur de couverture dans chaque scénario et nous fournissons des conditions suffisantes qui impliquent la robustesse de la couverture delta-neutre. Nous montrons que la robustesse peut être obtenue dans un ensemble ample de modèles de prix de martingale exponentielle de carré intégrable, avec une condition de convexité verticale sur le payoff. Nous remarquons que les discontinuités de la trajectoire de prix détériorent la performance de la couverture. Le dernier chapitre, indépendant du reste de la thèse, est une étude en collaboration avec Andrea Pascucci et Stefano Pagliarani, où nous proposons une nouvelle méthode pour l'approximation analytique dans des modèles à volatilité locale avec des sauts de type Lévy. / This thesis develops a mathematical framework for the analysis of continuous-time trading strategies which, in contrast to the classical setting of continuous-time finance, does not rely on stochastic integrals or other probabilistic notions.Using the `non-anticipative functional calculus', we first develop a pathwise definition of the gain process for a large class of continuous-time trading strategies which includes delta-hedging strategies, as well as a pathwise definition of the self-financing condition. Using these concepts, we propose a framework for analyzing the performance and robustness of delta-hedging strategies for path-dependent derivatives across a given set of scenarios. Our setting allows for general path-dependent payoffs and does not require any probabilistic assumption on the dynamics of the underlying asset, thereby extending previous results on robustness of hedging strategies in the setting of diffusion models. We obtain a pathwise formula for the hedging error for a general path-dependent derivative and provide sufficient conditions ensuring the robustness of the delta-hedge. We show in particular that robust hedges may be obtained in a large class of continuous exponential martingale models under a vertical convexity condition on the payoff functional. We also show that discontinuities in the underlying asset always deteriorate the hedging performance. These results are applied to the case of Asian options and barrier options. The last chapter, independent of the rest of the thesis, proposes a novel method, jointly developed with Andrea Pascucci and Stefano Pagliarani, for analytical approximations in local volatility models with Lévy jumps.

Das Ziel der Dissertation ist die Entwicklung statistischer Testverfahren zur Überprüfung parametrischer Modelle für die Dynamik zeitstetiger Prozesse und die Anwendung der entwickelten Methoden auf Finanzmarktdaten. Besonderes Augenmerk wird auf die statistische Methodik und die Untersuchung der Testeigenschaften in endlichen Stichproben gelegt, da diese in empirischen Untersuchungen von entscheidener Bedeutung sind. Alle Kapitel der Dissertation umfassen eine empirische Analyse, in der die vorgestellten Tests auf Finanzmarktdaten angewandt werden. / The aim of the thesis is to provide a wide range of statistical methods designed to test parametric assumptions about the evolution of continuous time processes in financial markets. The main focus is on the statistical methodology and the investigation of the properties of the proposed methods when applied to finite samples. The latter aspect is particularly important for empirical applications. All chapters include an empirical analysis of financial data using the developed methods.

In this thesis we establish a relationship between the Potential Approach to interest rates and the Market Models. This relationship allows us to derive the dynamics of forward LIBOR rates and forward swap rates by modelling the state price density. It means that we are able to secure the arbitrage-free condition and positive interest rate feature when we model the volatility drifts of those dynamics. On the other hand, we develop the Potential Approach, particularly the Hughston-Rafailidis Chaotic Interest Rate Model. The early argument enables us to infer that the Chaos Models belong to the Stochastic Volatility Market Models. In particular, we propose One-variable Chaos Models with the application of exponential polynomials. This maintains the generality of the Chaos Models and performs well for yield curves comparing with the Nelson-Siegel Form and the Svensson Form. Moreover, we calibrate the One-variable Chaos Model to European Caplets and European Swaptions. We show that the One-variable Chaos Models can reproduce the humped shape of the term structure of caplet volatility and also the volatility smile/skew curve. The calibration errors are small compared with the Lognormal Forward LIBOR Model, the SABR Model, traditional Short Rate Models, and other models under the Potential Approach. After the calibration, we introduce some new interest rate models under the Potential Approach. In particular, we suggest a new framework where the volatility drifts can be indirectly modelled from the short rate via the state price density.

Des travaux récents dans le domaine des mathématiques financières ont fait émerger l'importance de l'étude de la régularité et du comportement fin des queues de distribution pour certaines classes de diffusions à coefficients non globalement réguliers. Dans cette thèse, nous traitons des problèmes issus de ce contexte. Nous étudions d'abord l'existence, la régularité et l'asymptotique en espace de densités pour les solutions d'équations différentielles stochastiques en n'imposant que des conditions locales sur les coefficients de l'équation. Notre analyse se base sur les outils du calcul de Malliavin et sur des estimations pour les processus d'Ito confinés dans un tube autour d'une courbe déterministe. Nous obtenons des estimations significatives de la fonction de répartition et de la densité dans des classes de modèles comprenant des généralisations du CIR et du CEV et des modèles à volatilité locale-stochastique : dans ce deuxième cas, les estimations entraînent l'explosion des moments du sous-jacent et ont ainsi un impact sur le comportement asymptotique en strike de la volatilité implicite. La modélisation paramétrique de la surface de volatilité, à son tour, fait l'objet de la deuxième partie. Nous considérons le modèle SVI de J. Gatheral, en proposant une nouvelle stratégie de calibration quasi-explicite, dont nous illustrons les performances sur des données de marché. Ensuite, nous analysons la capacité du SVI à générer des approximations pour les smiles symétriques, en le généralisant à un modèle dépendant du temps. Nous en testons l'application à un modèle de Heston (sans et avec déplacement), en générant des approximations semi-fermées pour le smile de volatilité / Some recent works in the field of mathematical finance have brought new light on the importance of studying the regularity and the tail asymptotics of distributions for certain classes of diffusions with non-globally smooth coefficients. In this Ph.D. dissertation we deal with some issues in this framework. In a first part, we study the existence, smoothness and space asymptotics of densities for the solutions of stochastic differential equations assuming only local conditions on the coefficients of the equation. Our analysis is based on Malliavin calculus tools and on « tube estimates » for Ito processes, namely estimates for the probability that the trajectory of an Ito process remains close to a deterministic curve. We obtain significant estimates of densities and distribution functions in general classes of option pricing models, including generalisations of CIR and CEV processes and Local-Stochastic Volatility models. In the latter case, the estimates we derive have an impact on the moment explosion of the underlying price and, consequently, on the large-strike behaviour of the implied volatility. Parametric implied volatility modeling, in its turn, makes the object of the second part. In particular, we focus on J. Gatheral's SVI model, first proposing an effective quasi-explicit calibration procedure and displaying its performances on market data. Then, we analyse the capability of SVI to generate efficient approximations of symmetric smiles, building an explicit time-dependent parameterization. We provide and test the numerical application to the Heston model (without and with displacement), for which we generate semi-closed expressions of the smile

This thesis is concerned with the mathematical analysis of electricity and carbon emission markets. We introduce a novel, versatile and tractable stochastic framework for the joint price formation of electricity spot prices and allowance certificates. In the proposed framework electricity and allowance prices are explained as functions of specific fundamental factors, such as the demand for electricity and the prices of the fuels used for its production. As a result, the proposed model very clearly captures the complex dependency of the modelled prices on the aforementioned fundamental factors. The allowance price is obtained as the solution to a coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equation. We provide a rigorous proof of the existence and uniqueness of a solution to this equation and analyse its behaviour using asymptotic techniques. The essence of the model for the electricity price is a carefully chosen and explicitly constructed function representing the supply curve in the electricity market. The model we propose accommodates most regulatory features that are commonly found in implementations of emissions trading systems and we analyse in detail the impact these features have on the prices of allowance certificates. Thereby we reveal a weakness in existing regulatory frameworks, which, in rare cases, can lead to allowance prices that do not conform with the conditions imposed by the regulator. We illustrate the applicability of our model to the pricing of derivative contracts, in particular clean spread options and numerically illustrate its ability to "see" relationships between the fundamental variables and the option contract, which are usually unobserved by other commonly used models in the literature. The results we obtain constitute flexible tools that help to efficiently evaluate the financial impact current or future implementations of emissions trading systems have on participants in these markets.

The last few years have witnessed an exponential increase in the availability and use of financial market data, which is sampled at increasingly high frequencies. Extracting useful information about the dependency structure of a system from these multivariate data streams has numerous practical applications and can aid in improving our understanding of the driving forces in the global financial markets. These large and noisy data sets are highly non-Gaussian in nature and require the use of efficient and accurate interaction measurement approaches for their analysis in a real-time environment. However, most frequently used measures of interaction have certain limitations to their practical use, such as the assumption of normality or computational complexity. This thesis has two major aims; firstly, to address this lack of availability of suitable methods by presenting a set of approaches to dynamically measure symmetric and asymmetric interactions, i.e. causality, in multivariate non-Gaussian signals in a computationally efficient (online) framework, and secondly, to make use of these approaches to analyse multivariate financial time series in order to extract interesting and practically useful information from financial data. Most of our proposed approaches are primarily based on independent component analysis, a blind source separation method which makes use of higher-order statistics to capture information about the mixing process which gives rise to a set of observed signals. Knowledge about this information allows us to investigate the information coupling dynamics, as well as to study the asymmetric flow of information, in multivariate non-Gaussian data streams. We extend our multivariate interaction models, using a variety of statistical techniques, to study the scale-dependent nature of interactions and to analyse dependencies in high-dimensional systems using complex coupling networks. We carry out a detailed theoretical, analytical and empirical comparison of our proposed approaches with some other frequently used measures of interaction, and demonstrate their comparative utility, efficiency and accuracy using a set of practical financial case studies, focusing primarily on the foreign exchange spot market.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:32:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_pedro_lopes_nascimento.pdf: 5276511 bytes, checksum: c178505a90b5d50e92edcaec1c55894d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004-05-18 / The theme of this research THE STUDENT S EDUCATION AND THE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER S VISION OF MATHEMATICAL FINANCE has been motivated by the reflection of what students know and what high school teachers think about Mathematical Finance at this stage of the learning process. This approach is auspicious and relevant considering it associates the pragmatical dimension, a Mathematical Finance utility, to the aspects of context, transversality, interdisciplinarity and citizenship, which are emphasized by the guidelines in the curriculum projects, specially by the Brazilian National Curriculum Parameters for the Elementary, Middle and High School (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Fundamental e do Ensino Médio). In this investigation, we studied different official documents related to the teaching of Mathematics, we analyzed a few classroom books, we gathered data in order to identify the basic knowledge of graduate students and those still in high school, we collected opinions from public school teachers about the pertinence of a work with themes connected to Mathematical Finance, and analyzed reports of teachers participating of the 2002 Continuous Education Program developed by the Catholic University of São Paulo, associated with the Ministry of Education in the state of São Paulo. The results support our hypotheses that Mathematical Finance provides knowledge which surrounds every human activity, such as those related to work, shopping and finance. However, we also determined that there is a gap between what is intended and what is actually done, once high school programs still offer contents which give the youth non proper space for the development and total practice of their citizenship, dealing with knowledge that are not applicable to everyday situations. This still applied propaedeutic form, which prepares the student only for continuing their studies, privileges a minority of students about 30% -, according to the 1998 School Census. Based on these evidences, which point out to the importance of a curriculum with cultural approach, this research proposes, at last, the inclusion of Mathematical Finance in the roll of the subjects taught in High School / O tema do presente trabalho A FORMAÇÃO DO ALUNO E A VISÃO DO PROFESSOR DO ENSINO MÉDIO EM RELAÇÃO À MATEMÁTICA FINANCEIRA tem como motivação refletir sobre o que sabem os alunos e o que pensam os professores do Ensino Médio a respeito da Matemática Financeira nesta etapa da escolaridade. Essa discussão é oportuna e torna o tema relevante, na medida que conjuga a dimensão pragmática, utilitária da Matemática Financeira aos aspectos da contextualização, transversalidade, interdisciplinaridade e cidadania, que são enfatizados nas orientações contidas nos projetos curriculares, em especial nos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Fundamental e do Ensino Médio. Nesta investigação, estudamos diferentes documentos oficiais relativos ao ensino da Matemática, analisamos alguns livros didáticos; coletamos dados para identificar os conhecimentos básicos de alunos egressos e de alunos que cursam o Ensino Médio; levantamos opiniões de professores da rede estadual sobre a pertinência do trabalho com temas ligados à Matemática Financeira; e analisamos relatórios de professores participantes de projeto de formação continuada realizado em 2002 pela PUC/SP, em convênio com a Secretaria de Educação/SP. Os resultados apurados reforçam nossas hipóteses de que a Matemática Financeira traz conhecimentos que permeiam toda atividade humana, relacionada ao trabalho, consumo e finanças. Entretanto, constatamos também que há uma cisão entre o que se pretende e o que se faz, uma vez que o Ensino Médio continua a oferecer conteúdos que não favorecem ao jovem o espaço devido para o desenvolvimento do exercício pleno de sua cidadania, tratando de conhecimentos não aplicáveis ao seu cotidiano. Essa forma propedêutica, ainda vigente, que prepara o aluno apenas para dar continuidade aos seus estudos, privilegia uma minoria de estudantes - em torno de 30% -, segundo o Censo Escolar de 1998. Com base nessas evidências que apontam para a importância de um currículo com enfoque cultural, a presente pesquisa objetiva, ao final, propor a inclusão da Matemática Financeira no rol de conteúdos trabalhados no Ensino Médio

In this thesis we examine the ability of the log-periodic power law model to accurately predict the end of speculative bubbles on financial markets through modeling of asset price dynamics on a selection of historical bubbles. The methods we use are based on a nonlinear least squares estimation which yields predictions of when the bubble will change regime.We find evidence which support the occurrence of LPPL-patterns leading up to the change in regime; asset prices during bubble periods seem to oscillate around a faster-than-exponential growth. In most cases the estimation yields accurate predictions, although we conclude that the predictions are quite dependent on at which point in time the prediction is conducted. We also find that the end of a speculative bubble seems to be influenced by both endogenous speculative growth and exogenous factors. For this reason we propose a new way of interpreting the predictions of the model, where the end dates should be interpreted as the start of a time period where the asset prices are especially sensitive to exogenous events. We propose that negative news during this time period results in a regime shift of the bubble. This study is the first to address both the possibilities and the limitations of the LPPL-model, and should therefore be considered as a contribution to the academia.

A standard problem in mathematical finance is the calculation of the price of some financial derivative such as various types of options. Since there exists analytical solutions in only a few cases it will often boil down to estimating the price with Monte Carlo simulation in conjunction with some numerical discretization scheme. The upside of using what we can call standard Monte Carlo is that it is relative straightforward to apply and can be used for a wide variety of problems. The downside is that it has a relatively slow convergence which means that the computational cost or complexity can be very large. However, this slow convergence can be improved upon by using Multilevel Monte Carlo instead of standard Monte Carlo. With this approach it is possible to reduce the computational complexity and cost of simulation considerably. The aim of this thesis is to introduce the reader to the Multilevel Monte Carlo method with applications to European and Asian call options in both the Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) model and in the Heston model. To this end we first cover the necessary background material such as basic probability theory, estimators and some of their properties, the stochastic integral, stochastic processes and Ito’s theorem. We introduce stochastic differential equations and two numerical discretizations schemes, the Euler–Maruyama scheme and the Milstein scheme. We define strong and weak convergence and illustrate these concepts with examples. We also describe the standard Monte Carlo method and then the theory and implementation of Multilevel Monte Carlo. In the applications part we perform numerical experiments where we compare standard Monte Carlo to Multilevel Monte Carlo in conjunction with the Euler–Maruyama scheme and Milsteins scheme. In the case of a European call in the BSM model, using the Euler–Maruyama scheme, we achieved a cost O(ε-2(log ε)2) to reach the desired error in accordance with theory in comparison to the O(ε-3) cost for standard Monte Carlo. When using Milsteins scheme instead of the Euler–Maruyama scheme it was possible to reduce the cost in terms of the number of simulations needed to achieve the desired error even further. By using Milsteins scheme, a method with greater order of strong convergence than Euler–Maruyama, we achieved the O(ε-2) cost predicted by the complexity theorem compared to the standard Monte Carlo cost of order O(ε-3). In the final numerical experiment we applied the Multilevel Monte Carlo method together with the Euler–Maruyama scheme to an Asian call in the Heston model. In this case, where the coefficients of the Heston model do not satisfy a global Lipschitz condition, the study of strong or weak convergence is much harder. The numerical experiments suggested that the strong convergence was slightly slower compared to what was found in the case of a European call in the BSM model. Nevertheless, we still achieved substantial savings in computational cost compared to using standard Monte Carlo.

In this thesis we study the utility maximization problem for assets whose prices are cointegrated, which arises from the investment practice of convergence trading and its special forms, pairs trading and spread trading. The major theme in the first two chapters of the thesis, is to investigate the assumption of market-neutrality of the optimal convergence trading strategies, which is a ubiquitous assumption taken by practitioners and academics alike. This assumption lacks a theoretical justification and, to the best of our knowledge, the only relevant study is Liu and Timmermann (2013) which implies that the optimal convergence strategies are, in general, not market-neutral. We start by considering a minimalistic pairs-trading scenario with two cointegrated stocks and solve the Merton investment problem with power and logarithmic utilities. We pay special attention to when/if the stochastic control problem is well-posed, which is overlooked in the study done by Liu and Timmermann (2013). In particular, we show that the problem is ill-posed if and only if the agent’s risk-aversion is less than a constant which is an explicit function of the market parameters. This condition, in turn, yields the necessary and sufficient condition for well-posedness of the Merton problem for all possible values of agent’s risk-aversion. The resulting well-posedness condition is surprisingly strict and, in particular, is equivalent to assuming the optimal investment strategy in the stocks to be market-neutral. Furthermore, it is shown that the well-posedness condition is equivalent to applying Novikov’s condition to the market-price of risk, which is a ubiquitous sufficient condition for imposing absence of arbitrage. To the best of our knowledge, these are the only theoretical results for supporting the assumption of market-neutrality of convergence trading strategies. We then generalise the results to the more realistic setting of multiple cointegrated assets, assuming risk factors that effects the asset returns, and general utility functions for investor’s preference. In the process of generalising the bivariate results, we also obtained some well-posedness conditions for matrix Riccati differential equations which are, to the best of our knowledge, new. In the last chapter, we set up and justify a Merton problem that is related to spread-trading with two futures assets and assuming proportional transaction costs. The model possesses three characteristics whose combination makes it different from the existing literature on proportional transaction costs: 1) finite time horizon, 2) Multiple risky assets 3) stochastic opportunity set. We introduce the HJB equation and provide rigorous arguments showing that the corresponding value function is the viscosity solution of the HJB equation. We end the chapter by devising a numerical scheme, based on the penalty method of Forsyth and Vetzal (2002), to approximate the viscosity solution of the HJB equation.