Numerical Method for American Option Pricing under the Time-Fractional Black–Scholes Model

Abstract

The fractional Black–Scholes model has had limited applications in financial markets. Instead, the time-fractional Black–Scholes equation has attracted much research interest. However, it is difficult to obtain the analytic expression for American option pricing under the time-fractional Black–Scholes model. This paper will present an operator-splitting method to price the American options under the time-fractional Black–Scholes model. The fractional partial differential complementarity problem (FPDCP) that the American option price satisfied is split into two subproblems: a linear boundary value problem and an algebraic system. A high-order compact (HOC) scheme and a grid stretching (GS) method are considered for the linear boundary problem. Furthermore, numerical results show that the HOC scheme with a GS method gives an accurate numerical solution for American options under the time-fractional Black–Scholes model.