This thesis develops efficient modeling frameworks via a Partial Differential Equation (PDE) approach for multi-factor financial derivatives, with emphasis on three-factor models, and studies highly efficient implementations of the numerical methods on novel high-performance computer architectures, with particular focus on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and multi-GPU platforms/clusters of GPUs. Two important classes of multi-factor financial instruments are considered: cross-currency/foreign exchange (FX) interest rate derivatives and multi-asset options. For cross-currency interest rate derivatives, the focus of the thesis is on Power Reverse Dual Currency (PRDC) swaps with three of the most popular exotic features, namely Bermudan cancelability, knockout, and FX Target Redemption. The modeling of PRDC swaps using one-factor Gaussian models for the domestic and foreign interest short rates, and a one-factor skew model for the spot FX rate results in a time-dependent parabolic PDE in three space dimensions. Our proposed PDE pricing framework is based on partitioning the pricing problem into several independent pricing subproblems over each time period of the swap's tenor structure, with possible communication at the end of the time period. Each of these subproblems requires a solution of the model PDE. We then develop a highly efficient GPU-based parallelization of the Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) timestepping methods for solving the model PDE. To further handle the substantially increased computational requirements due to the exotic features, we extend the pricing procedures to multi-GPU platforms/clusters of GPUs to solve each of these independent subproblems on a separate GPU. Numerical results indicate that the proposed GPU-based parallel numerical methods are highly efficient and provide significant increase in performance over CPU-based methods when pricing PRDC swaps. An analysis of the impact of the FX volatility skew on the price of PRDC swaps is provided. In the second part of the thesis, we develop efficient pricing algorithms for multi-asset options under the Black-Scholes-Merton framework, with strong emphasis on multi-asset American options. Our proposed pricing approach is built upon a combination of (i) a discrete penalty approach for the linear complementarity problem arising due to the free boundary and (ii) a GPU-based parallel ADI Approximate Factorization technique for the solution of the linear algebraic system arising from each penalty iteration. A timestep size selector implemented efficiently on GPUs is used to further increase the efficiency of the methods. We demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed GPU-based parallel numerical methods by pricing American options written on three assets.

Cette thèse étudie la dynamique du marché des credit default swaps (CDS), instruments financiers de transfert du risque du crédit, et de ses relations avec les autres marchés, en particulier durant les épisodes de crise. Le marché des CDS a connu un développement vigoureux depuis son émergence, au milieu des années 90. Les volumes de contrats de CDS échangés ont augmenté à un rythme rapide, ce marché a ainsi connu le développement le plus rapide parmi les dérivés négociés de gré-à-gré (over-the-counter - OTC). Les participants de marché, principalement les grandes banques, ont su tirer parti des possibilités offertes par les outils de transfert de risque qui leur ont permis tout d'abord, de disposer d'instruments novateurs de protection contre le risque de crédit, mais aussi d'assurer l'expansion de leur activité d'intermédiation du crédit tout en optimisant les exigences en capital. Bien que le fonctionnement du marché des CDS ait connu une amélioration depuis le début des années 2000, plusieurs éléments mettent en doute l'hypothèse d'un marché efficient et résilient aux périodes de crise. A travers cinq articles empiriques, cette thèse se penche sur deux épisodes de crises durant lesquels le fonctionnement de ce marché a pu être perturbé : d'une part la crise de mai 2005, provoquée par la dégradation en catégorie spéculative de deux entreprises américaines majeures, General Motors et Ford, par les principales agences de notation ; d'autre part la crise financière ayant débuté en 2007 et qui a évolué en crise de la dette souveraine dans le cas des Etats européens à partir de fin 2009. L'étude de ces deux phases de crise montre que le développement du marché des CDS a participé à modifier les relations entre marchés, les investisseurs ayant fait des primes de CDS une source d'information privilégiée pour évaluer le risque de crédit. En effet, les travaux empiriques menés tout au long de la thèse concluent que ce marché est devenu progressivement le lieu où tendait à se dérouler le processus de découverte des prix. Ces travaux mettent également en lumière les vulnérabilités du marché des CDS, renforcées par des effets de contagion déjà à l'œuvre lors de l'épisode de crise de 2005, et incitent à une meilleure régulation des outils de transfert du risque de crédit et, d'une manière plus générale, des dérivés OTC.

This dissertation comprises two essays; the first of which investigates sovereign credit risk interdependencies, while the second examines the reaction of corporate credit risk to sovereign credit risk events. The first essay titled, Characterizing Sovereign Credit Risk Interdependencies: Evidence from the Credit Default Swap Market, investigates the relationships that exist among disparate sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) and the implications on sovereign creditworthiness. We exploit emerging market sovereign CDS spreads to examine the reaction of sovereign credit risk to changes in country-specific and global financial factors. Utilizing aVAR model fitted with DCC GARCH, we find that comovements of spreads generally exhibit significant time-varying correlations, suggesting that spreads are commonly affected by global financial factors. We construct 19 country-specific commodity price indexes to instrument for country terms of trade, obtaining significant results. Our commodity price indexes account for significant variation in CDS spreads, controlling for global financial factors. In addition, sovereign spreads are found to be related to U.S. stock market returns and the VIX volatility risk premium global factors. Notwithstanding, our results suggest that terms of trade and commodity prices have a statistically and economically significant effect on the sovereign credit risk of emerging economies. Our results apply broadly to investors, financial institutions and policy makers motivated to utilize profitable factors in global portfolios. The second essay is titled, Differential Stock Market Returns and Corporate Credit Risk of Listed Firms. This essay explores the information transfer effect of shocks to sovereign credit risk as captured in the CDS and stock market returns of cross-listed and local stock exchange listed firms. Based on changes in sovereign credit ratings and outlooks, we find that widening CDS spreads of firms imply that negative credit events dominate, whereas tightening spreads indicate positive events. Grouping firms into companies with cross-listings and those without, we compare the spillover effects and find strong evidence of contagion across equity and CDS markets in both company groupings. Our findings suggest that the sensitivity of corporate CDS prices to sovereign credit events is significantly larger for non-cross-listed firms. Possible reasons for this finding could in fact be due to cross-listed firms’ better access to external capital and less degree of asymmetric information, relative to non-cross-listed peers with lower level of investor recognition. Our results provide new evidence relevant to investors and financial institutions in determining sovereign credit risk germane to corporate financial risk, for the construction of debt and equity portfolios, and hedging considerations in today’s dynamic environment.

Tesis (para optar al grado de magíster en derecho tributario) / El presente trabajo busca describir los contratos de derivados financieros más comunes, y explicar someramente el régimen tributario aplicable a los mismos al amparo de la ley N° 20.544 de 22 de octubre de 2011. Asimismo, busca dar cuenta de la posibilidad de utilizar a los instrumentos derivados financieros como instrumentos de planificación tributaria por medio de los cuales se puede pretender evitar la aplicación de ciertos impuestos sobre la base de la celebración de contratos con efectos económicos idénticos pero tratamientos tributarios más favorables. En este contexto, surge una norma de control del artículo 12 de la ley N° 20.544, la cual busca dotar al Servicio de Impuestos Internos de herramientas de fiscalización y control adecuadas para hacer frente al empleo de instrumentos derivados con fines de planificación. En el afán de explicar dicha norma de control indagamos en el origen de la norma, los límites y restricciones que puede tener la misma al importar una verdadera interpretación económica del hecho gravado y el efecto que creemos tiene el establecimiento de dicha norma en el esquema fiscalizador del Servicio de Impuestos Internos, explicitando los requisitos que dicho Servicio debe cumplir a efectos de aplicar la misma

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pedro Carlos Payan.pdf: 5505672 bytes, checksum: f581d36a76f7ed1bfa5464e4ec091617 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-05-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Companies can use derivative instruments for covering risks. With the use of these instruments the problems appear in the measurement, accounting, and the disclosures. This project s objective based on a case study is to analyze the Derivative Instrument (Foreign Exchange Swap) as the countable theory and international norms of the FASB, IASB and Brazilian Norms. The Brazilian Norms are published by the CPC and together these norms are the make up of the CVM. This case study demonstrated the process of the operation, the criteria for the measurement, as well as the accounting aspect. The reasons behind this project are first, the significant volume in the transactions of Swap at the end of 2008, which reached R$ 12,6 billion. Second the risk involving these operations, the difficulty encountered by accounting for the recognition, measurement and disclosure. The collected data applied from the systems of calculations and evaluations of the instruments are then compared to the collected data reported by the company. There are no significant differences in these calculations except having discrepancy in the use of accounts, which results in the registration in Swap Accounting. Three situations dealing with assets were compared by the Derivatives Instrument: a) traditionally for the curve of the paper: the financial accounts and results of the period are affected; b) recording the marking to market without hedge accounting: it showed different balances in the item accounts; c) recording the marking to market with hedge accounting: there were alterations in the result of the period, in the financial accounts and in the total shareholder s equity / As empresas podem utilizar instrumentos derivativos para cobertura de riscos. Na utilização destes instrumentos surgem os problemas para a mensuração, contabilização e divulgação. Este trabalho tem por objetivo, através de um estudo de caso, analisar o instrumento derivativo swap cambial à luz da teoria contábil e normas internacionais do FASB, IASB e normas brasileiras publicadas pelo CPC, juntamente com os pareceres normativos da CVM. O estudo de caso demonstrou os procedimentos desta operação, os critérios para mensuração bem como sua contabilização. O tema deste trabalho tem sua justificativa, primeiramente pelo volume expressivo das operações de swap, que ao final de 2008, atingiu R$ 12.6 bilhões e também pelo risco envolvendo estas operações e a dificuldade encontrada pela Contabilidade para o reconhecimento, mensuração e evidenciação. Foram pesquisados sistemas de cálculos e de avaliação deste instrumento e aplicados aos dados coletados comparando-se com os registrados pela empresa. Não houve diferenças significativas nos cálculos, havendo apenas divergência na utilização de contas de resultado para o registro da contabilização do swap. Compararam-se três situações patrimoniais na contabilização do instrumento: a) contabilizados tradicionalmente pela curva do papel: afetaram as contas de financiamentos e resultados do período; b) contabilizados com marcação a mercado sem hedge contábil: apresentaram saldos diferentes nas contas do item a; c) contabilizados com marcação a mercado e com hedge contábil: houve alterações do resultado do período, nas contas de financiamentos e no total do grupo do Patrimônio Líquido

本論文第一章將 LIBOR 市場模型加入股價動態，並求出其風險中立過程下的動態模型，並利用此模型評價股籌交換契約。第二章將 LIBOR 市場模型擴展成兩國的市場模型，加入兩國股價動態，並求出風險中立過程下的動態模型，並利用此模型評價跨國股籌交換契約。本論文第二部份說明如何實際使用此模型，並使用蒙地卡羅模擬檢驗此評價模型的正確性。 / This thesis includes two main chapters. Chapter 2 is entiled as "Equity Swaps in a LIBOR Market Model" and Chapter 3 is entitled as "Cross-Currency Equity Swaps in a LIBOR Market in a Model". The conclusions of this thesis are made in Chapter 4. In Chapter 2, we extends the BGM (Brace, Gatarek and Musiela (1997))interest rate model (the LIBOR market model) by incorporating the stock price dynamics under the martingale measure. As compared with traditional interest rate models, the extended BGM model is easy to calibrate the model parameters and appropriate for pricing equity swaps. The general framework for pricing equity swaps is proposed and applied to the pricing of floating-for-equity swaps with either constant or variable notional principals. The calibration procedure and the practical implementation are also discussed. In Chapter 3, under the arbitrage-free framework of HJM, we simultaneously extends the BGM model (the LIBOR market model) from a single-currency economy to a cross-currency case and incorporates the stock price dynamics under the martingale measure. The resulting model is very general for pricing almost every kind of (cross-currency) equity swaps traded in OTC markets. The calibration procedure and the hedging strategies are also provided in this paper for practical operation. The pricing formulas of the equity swaps with either a constant or a variable notional principal and with hedged or un-hedged exchange rate risk are derived and discussed as examples.

This thesis develops efficient modeling frameworks via a Partial Differential Equation (PDE) approach for multi-factor financial derivatives, with emphasis on three-factor models, and studies highly efficient implementations of the numerical methods on novel high-performance computer architectures, with particular focus on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and multi-GPU platforms/clusters of GPUs. Two important classes of multi-factor financial instruments are considered: cross-currency/foreign exchange (FX) interest rate derivatives and multi-asset options. For cross-currency interest rate derivatives, the focus of the thesis is on Power Reverse Dual Currency (PRDC) swaps with three of the most popular exotic features, namely Bermudan cancelability, knockout, and FX Target Redemption. The modeling of PRDC swaps using one-factor Gaussian models for the domestic and foreign interest short rates, and a one-factor skew model for the spot FX rate results in a time-dependent parabolic PDE in three space dimensions. Our proposed PDE pricing framework is based on partitioning the pricing problem into several independent pricing subproblems over each time period of the swap's tenor structure, with possible communication at the end of the time period. Each of these subproblems requires a solution of the model PDE. We then develop a highly efficient GPU-based parallelization of the Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) timestepping methods for solving the model PDE. To further handle the substantially increased computational requirements due to the exotic features, we extend the pricing procedures to multi-GPU platforms/clusters of GPUs to solve each of these independent subproblems on a separate GPU. Numerical results indicate that the proposed GPU-based parallel numerical methods are highly efficient and provide significant increase in performance over CPU-based methods when pricing PRDC swaps. An analysis of the impact of the FX volatility skew on the price of PRDC swaps is provided. In the second part of the thesis, we develop efficient pricing algorithms for multi-asset options under the Black-Scholes-Merton framework, with strong emphasis on multi-asset American options. Our proposed pricing approach is built upon a combination of (i) a discrete penalty approach for the linear complementarity problem arising due to the free boundary and (ii) a GPU-based parallel ADI Approximate Factorization technique for the solution of the linear algebraic system arising from each penalty iteration. A timestep size selector implemented efficiently on GPUs is used to further increase the efficiency of the methods. We demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed GPU-based parallel numerical methods by pricing American options written on three assets.

This doctoral thesis consists of 4 self-contained chapters: Sovereign Credit Default Swap Premia. This comprehensive review of the literature on sovereign CDS spreads highlights current academic debates and contrasts them with contradictory statements from the popular press.  Real Economic Shocks and Sovereign Credit Risk. New empirical evidence highlights that global macroeconomic risk unspanned by global financial risk bears some responsibility for the strong co-movement in sovereign spreads. A model with only two global macroeconomic state variables rationalizes the existence of time-varying risk premia as a compensation for exposure to common U.S. business cycle risk. The Term Structure of CDS Spreads and Sovereign Credit Risk. The term structure of CDS spreads is an informative signal about the relative importance of global and country-specific risk factors for the time variation of sovereign credit spreads. An empirically validated model illustrates how local risk matters relatively more when the slope is negative, while systematic risk bears more responsibility when the slope is positive. Squeezed Everywhere - Disentangling Types of Liquidity and Testing Limits-to-Arbitrage. The CDS-Bond basis is used as a laboratory to disentangle different types of liquidity and to test limits-of-arbitrage. While asset-specific liquidity is cross-correlated in both the cash and derivative market, funding and market liquidity matter only for the former. The tests find strong evidence in favor of margin-based asset pricing and flight-to-quality effects. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2013. Sammanfattning jämte 4 uppsatser</p>

La tesi mette a confronto l'universo delle riorganizzazioni nel Chapter 11 con i nuovi modelli di ristrutturazione concessi dalla riforma del diritto fallimentare. In modo particolare la tesi si sofferma sul mercato del controllo nella crisi di impresa. Negli Stati Uniti c'e' da tempo un mercato dei crediti sofferenti, mentre in Italia scontiamo ancora i ritardi del sistema economico. Il primo capitolo racconta i temi collegati al mercato del controllo nel Chapter 11: gli acquisti dei crediti nelle diverse classi creditorie, la nuova finanza concessa al debtor in possession, il controllo da covenant, la remunerazione degli amministratori con il debito, i derivati sul credito e il voto connesso. Il secondo capitolo si sofferma sull'interpretazione degli artt. 124 e 127 della legge fallimentare letti nell'ottica di un potenziale mercato del controllo nella crisi di impresa come nel caso del concordato con assunzione e si interroga infine sull'esenzione o meno da opa obbligatoria di tali operazioni alla luce dell'art. 106 TUF. / The thesis compares the world of Chapter 11 reorganizations with the new types of reorganizations introduced in Italy by the recent reform of bankruptcy law. In particular the thesis deals with the market for corporate control in the insolvency arena in both countries. In the States bankruptcy claims are traded on a regular basis whereas Italy still hasn't fully experienced transfers of control within the frame of a corporate reorganization. The first chapter focuses on all issues connected to US M&A in bankruptcy: acquisition of claims in the different classes, control rights in covenants, debtor-in-possession financing, pay for performance in bankruptcy, credit default swaps and empty voting. The second chapter focuses on the interpretation of articles 124 and 127 of the new Italian bankruptcy law which may lead to the creation of a market for corporate control within the frame of a composition with a third party buyer and discusses the potential applicability of mandatory bids pursuant to art. 106 TUF to such deals.

In this thesis, I study the transmission of monetary policy through the term structure of interest rates. This is an important topic because, with short-term nominal interest rates in many advanced economies close to their effective lower bound since 2008-2009, central banks have used `unconventional' monetary policies, such as large-scale asset purchases and forward guidance, to stimulate macroeconomic activity by, inter alia, placing downward pressure on longer-term interest rates. I focus on the mechanisms through which monetary policy influences bond yields, domestically and globally, with reference to a canonical decomposition of longer-term interest rates into expectations of future short-term interest rates, and term premia. After an introduction in chapter 1, chapter 2 appraises the use of overnight indexed swap (OIS) rates as measures of expected future monetary policy. Unlike federal funds futures (FFFs), which have regularly been used to construct measures of US interest rate expectations, OIS rates are available in many countries. I find that US OIS rates provide measures of interest rate expectations that are as good as those from FFFs, and that US, UK, Eurozone and Japanese OIS rates up to a 2-year horizon tend to accurately measure interest rate expectations, providing comparable cross-country measures of monetary policy expectations. In chapter 3, I propose a novel method for estimating interest rate expectations and term premia at short and long-term horizons: a no-arbitrage Gaussian affine dynamic term structure model (GADTSM) augmented with OIS rates. Using 3 to 24-month OIS rates, the OIS-augmented model generates estimates of the expected path of short-term interest rates out to a 10-year horizon that closely correspond to those implied by FFFs rates and survey expectations, outperforming existing GADTSMs. I study the transmission of US unconventional monetary policies in chapter 4. Using the OIS-augmented GADTSM, I carry out an event study to demonstrate that US unconventional monetary policy announcements between November 2008 and April 2013 did significantly reduce US longer-term interest rates by affecting expectations and term premia. As a result of these declines, unconventional monetary policies aided US real economic outcomes. Using a structural vector autoregression, I show that changes in interest rate expectations, linked to monetary policy signalling, had more expansionary effects on US real economic outcomes than changes in term premia, associated with portfolio rebalancing. Chapter 5 assesses the international transmission of monetary policy through the term structure of interest rates between advanced economies. I present a micro-founded, two-country model with endogenous portfolio choice amongst country-specific short and long-term bonds, and equity. Within the model, US monetary policy has sizeable effects on longer-term interest rates in other advanced economies, which are similar to empirical estimates. Using the OIS-augmented GADTSM in an event study, I show that US monetary policy has led to changes in interest rate expectations in other advanced economies that amplify global spillovers, which have been partly mitigated by changes in term premia through portfolio rebalancing.