High order method for Black–Scholes PDE

Abstract

In this paper, the Black–Scholes PDE is solved numerically by using the high order numerical method. Fourth-order central scheme and fourth-order compact scheme in space are performed, respectively. The comparison of these two kinds of difference schemes shows that under the same computational accuracy, the compact scheme has simpler stencil, less computation and higher efficiency. The fourth-order backward differentiation formula (BDF4) in time is then applied. However, the overall convergence order of the scheme is less than O(h4+δ4). The reason is, in option pricing, terminal conditions (also called pay-off function) is not able to be differentiated at the strike price and this problem will spread to the initial time, causing a second-order convergence solution. To tackle this problem, in this paper, the grid refinement method is performed, as a result, the overall rate of convergence could revert to fourth-order. The numerical experiments show that the method in this paper has high precision and high efficiency, thus it can be used as a practical guide for option pricing in financial markets.