A Further Study of the Choice Between Two Hedging Strategies–the Continuous Case

Abstract

In our previous work, the choice between two popular hedging strategies was studied under the assumption that the hedge position of the underlying portfolio follows a discrete-time Markov chain with boundary conditions. This paper aims to investigate the same problem for the continuous case. We first assume that the underlying hedge position follows an arbitrary continuous-time Markov process; we give the general formulas for long-run cost per unit time under two cost structures: (1) a fixed transaction cost (2) a non-fixed transaction cost. Then we consider the case where the underlying hedge position follows a Brownian motion with drift; we show that (i) re-balancing the hedge position to the initial position is always more cost-efficient than re-balancing it to the boundary for a fixed transaction cost; (ii) when the cost function satisfies certain conditions, re-balancing the hedge position to the initial position is more cost-efficient than re-balancing it to the boundary for a non-fixed transaction cost.