Rough Volatility Research Articles

Asymptotic behaviour of randomised fractional volatility models

AbstractWe study the asymptotic behaviour of a class of small-noise diffusions driven by fractional Brownian motion, with random starting points. Different scalings allow for different asymptotic properties of the process (small-time and tail behaviours in particular). In order to do so, we extend some results on sample path large deviations for such diffusions. As an application, we show how these results characterise the small-time and tail estimates of the implied volatility for rough volatility models, recently proposed in mathematical finance.

Asymptotics for Volatility Derivatives in Multi-Factor Rough Volatility Models

We present small-time implied volatility asymptotics for Realised Variance (RV) and VIX options for a number of (rough) stochastic volatility models via large deviations principle. We provide numerical results along with efficient and robust numerical recipes to compute the rate function; the backbone of our theoretical framework. Based on our results, we further develop approximation schemes for the density of RV, which in turn allows to express the volatility swap in close-form. Lastly, we investigate different constructions of multi-factor models and how each of them affects the convexity of the implied volatility smile. Interestingly, we identify the class of models that generate non-linear smiles around-the-money.

Regime switching rough Heston model

AbstractThis model combines two important stylized features of volatility, the rough behavior consistent with a Hurst parameter less than , and the regime switching property consistent with more long‐term economic considerations. It is nevertheless highly tractable in the sense of semianalytic formulae for European options, and permits a partial Monte Carlo method of similar computational speed as the semianalytic formula (at an appropriate number of Monte Carlo simulations). While option prices are relatively insensitive to the choice of Hurst parameter, introducing rough volatility allows for a better fit to the at‐the‐money skew.

Deep Learning Volatility

We present a neural network based calibration method that performs the calibration task within a few milliseconds for the full implied volatility surface. The framework is consistently applicable throughout a range of volatility models—including second generation stochastic volatility models and the rough volatility family—and a range of derivative contracts. Neural networks in this work are used in an off-line approximation of complex pricing functions, which are difficult to represent or time-consuming to evaluate by other means. The form in which information from available data is extracted and used influences network performance: The grid-based algorithm used for calibration, inspired by representing the implied volatility and option prices as a collection of pixels is extended to include models where the initial forward variance curve is an input. We highlight how this perspective opens new horizons for quantitative modelling. The calibration bottleneck posed by a slow pricing of derivative contracts is lifted, and stochastic volatility models (classical and rough) can be handled in great generality. We demonstrate the calibration performance both on simulated and historical data, on different derivative contracts and on a number of examples models of increasing complexity, and also showcase some of the potentials of this approach towards model recognition. The algorithm and examples are provided in the Github repository GitHub: NN-StochVol-Calibrations.

Not so Particular about Calibration: Smile Problem Resolved

We present a novel Monte Carlo based LSV calibration algorithm that applies to all stochastic volatility models, including the non-Markovian rough volatility family. Our framework overcomes the limitations of the particle method proposed by Guyon and Henry-Labordere (2012) and theoretically guarantees a variance reduction without additional computational complexity. Specifically, we obtain a closed-form and exact calibration method that allows us to remove the dependency on both the kernel function and bandwidth parameter. This makes the algorithm more robust and less prone to errors or instabilities in a production environment. We test the efficiency of our algorithm on various hybrid (rough) local stochastic volatility models.

Multifactor Approximation of Rough Volatility Models

Rough volatility models are very appealing because of their remarkable fit of both historical and implied volatilities. However, due to the non-Markovian and nonsemimartingale nature of the volatil...

Perfect hedging in rough Heston models

Rough volatility models are known to reproduce the behavior of historical volatility data while at the same time fitting the volatility surface remarkably well, with very few parameters. However, managing the risks of derivatives under rough volatility can be intricate since the dynamics involve fractional Brownian motion. We show in this paper that surprisingly enough, explicit hedging strategies can be obtained in the case of rough Heston models. The replicating portfolios contain the underlying asset and the forward variance curve, and lead to perfect hedging (at least theoretically). From a probabilistic point of view, our study enables us to disentangle the infinite-dimensional Markovian structure associated to rough volatility models.

BUY-AND-HOLD PROPERTY FOR FULLY INCOMPLETE MARKETS WHEN SUPER-REPLICATING MARKOVIAN CLAIMS

We show that when the price process [Formula: see text] represents a fully incomplete market, the optimal super-replication of any Markovian claim [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] being nonnegative and lower semicontinuous is of buy-and-hold type. Since both (unbounded) stochastic volatility models and rough volatility models are examples of fully incomplete markets, one can interpret the buy-and-hold property when super-replicating Markovian claims as a natural phenomenon in incomplete markets.

Option pricing under fast-varying and rough stochastic volatility

Recent empirical studies suggest that the volatilities associated with financial time series exhibit short-range correlations. This entails that the volatility process is very rough and its autocorrelation exhibits sharp decay at the origin. Another classic stylistic feature often assumed for the volatility is that it is mean reverting. In this paper it is shown that the price impact of a rapidly mean reverting rough volatility model coincides with that associated with fast mean reverting Markov stochastic volatility models. This reconciles the empirical observation of rough volatility paths with the good fit of the implied volatility surface to models of fast mean reverting Markov volatilities. Moreover, the result conforms with recent numerical results regarding rough stochastic volatility models. It extends the scope of models for which the asymptotic results of fast mean reverting Markov volatilities are valid. The paper concludes with a general discussion of fractional volatility asymptotics and their interrelation. The regimes discussed there include fast and slow volatility factors with strong or small volatility fluctuations and with the limits not commuting in general. The notion of a characteristic term structure exponent is introduced, this exponent governs the implied volatility term structure in the various asymptotic regimes.

Rough volatility: Evidence from option prices

ABSTRACTIt has been recently shown that spot volatilities can be closely modeled by rough stochastic volatility-type dynamics. In such models, the log-volatility follows a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter smaller than half. This result has been established using high-frequency volatility estimations from historical price data. We revisit this finding by studying implied volatility-based approximations of the spot volatility. Using at-the-money options on the S&P500 index with short maturity, we are able to confirm that volatility is rough. The Hurst parameter found here, of order 0.3, is slightly larger than that usually obtained from historical data. This is easily explained from a smoothing effect due to the remaining time to maturity of the considered options.

Turbocharging Monte Carlo pricing for the rough Bergomi model

The rough Bergomi model, introduced by Bayer et al. [Quant. Finance, 2016, 16(6), 887–904], is one of the recent rough volatility models that are consistent with the stylised fact of implied volatility surfaces being essentially time-invariant, and are able to capture the term structure of skew observed in equity markets. In the absence of analytical European option pricing methods for the model, we focus on reducing the runtime-adjusted variance of Monte Carlo implied volatilities, thereby contributing to the model’s calibration by simulation. We employ a novel composition of variance reduction methods, immediately applicable to any conditionally log-normal stochastic volatility model. Assuming one targets implied volatility estimates with a given degree of confidence, thus calibration RMSE, the results we demonstrate equate to significant runtime reductions—roughly 20 times on average, across different correlation regimes.

The microstructural foundations of leverage effect and rough volatility

We show that typical behaviors of market participants at the high frequency scale generate leverage effect and rough volatility. To do so, we build a simple microscopic model for the price of an asset based on Hawkes processes. We encode in this model some of the main features of market microstructure in the context of high frequency trading: high degree of endogeneity of market, no-arbitrage property, buying/selling asymmetry and presence of metaorders. We prove that when the first three of these stylized facts are considered within the framework of our microscopic model, it behaves in the long run as a Heston stochastic volatility model, where leverage effect is generated. Adding the last property enables us to obtain a rough Heston model in the limit, exhibiting both leverage effect and rough volatility. Hence we show that at least part of the foundations of leverage effect and rough volatility can be found in the microstructure of the asset.

Volatility Options in Rough Volatility Models

We discuss the pricing and hedging of volatility options in some rough volatility models. First, we develop efficient Monte Carlo methods and asymptotic approximations for computing option prices and hedge ratios in models where log-volatility follows a Gaussian Volterra process. While providing a good fit for European options, these models are unable to reproduce the VIX option smile observed in the market, and are thus not suitable for VIX products. To accommodate these, we introduce the class of modulated Volterra processes, and show that they successfully capture the VIX smile.

Black–Scholes in a CEV random environment

Classical (Ito diffusions) stochastic volatility models are not able to capture the steepness of small-maturity implied volatility smiles. Jumps, in particular exponential Levy and affine models, which exhibit small-maturity exploding smiles, have historically been proposed to remedy this (see Tankov in Pricing and hedging in exponential Levy models: review of recent results. Paris-Princeton Lecture Notes in Mathematical Finance, Springer, Berlin, 2010 for an overview), and more recently rough volatility models (Alos et al. in On the short-time behavior of the implied volatility for jump-diffusion models with stochastic volatility. Finance Stoch 11(4):571–589, 2007, Fukasawa in Asymptotic analysis for stochastic volatility: martingale expansion. Finance Stoch 15:635–654, 2011). We suggest here a different route, randomising the Black–Scholes variance by a CEV-generated distribution, which allows us to modulate the rate of explosion (through the CEV exponent) of the implied volatility for small maturities. The range of rates includes behaviours similar to exponential Levy models and fractional stochastic volatility models.

The characteristic function of rough Heston models

AbstractIt has been recently shown that rough volatility models, where the volatility is driven by a fractional Brownian motion with small Hurst parameter, provide very relevant dynamics in order to reproduce the behavior of both historical and implied volatilities. However, due to the non‐Markovian nature of the fractional Brownian motion, they raise new issues when it comes to derivatives pricing. Using an original link between nearly unstable Hawkes processes and fractional volatility models, we compute the characteristic function of the log‐price in rough Heston models. In the classical Heston model, the characteristic function is expressed in terms of the solution of a Riccati equation. Here, we show that rough Heston models exhibit quite a similar structure, the Riccati equation being replaced by a fractional Riccati equation.

No-Arbitrage Implies Power-Law Market Impact and Rough Volatility

Market impact is the link between the volume of a (large) order and the price move during and after the execution of this order. We show that in a quite general framework, under no‐arbitrage assumption, the market impact function can only be of power‐law type. Furthermore, we prove this implies that the macroscopic price is diffusive with rough volatility, with a one‐to‐one correspondence between the exponent of the impact function and the Hurst parameter of the volatility. Hence, we simply explain the universal rough behavior of the volatility as a consequence of the no‐arbitrage property. From a mathematical viewpoint, our study relies, in particular, on new results about hyper‐rough stochastic Volterra equations.

Asymptotic Behavior of the Fractional Heston Model

We consider the fractional Heston model originally proposed by Comte, Coutin, and Renault [Ann. Finance, 8 (2012), pp. 337--378]. Inspired by recent groundbreaking work on rough volatility [E. Alos...

Fractional Brownian motion with zero Hurst parameter: a rough volatility viewpoint

Rough volatility models are becoming increasingly popular in quantitative finance. In this framework, one considers that the behavior of the log-volatility process of a financial asset is close to that of a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter around 0.1. Motivated by this, we wish to define a natural and relevant limit for the fractional Brownian motion when $H$ goes to zero. We show that once properly normalized, the fractional Brownian motion converges to a Gaussian random distribution which is very close to a log-correlated random field.

Functional Central Limit Theorems for Rough Volatility

We extend Donsker’s approximation of Brownian motion to fractional Brownian motion with Hurst exponent H∈(0,1) and to Volterra-like processes. Some of the most relevant consequences of our ‘rough Donsker (rDonsker) Theorem’ are convergence results for discrete approximations of a large class of rough models. This justifies the validity of simple and easy-to-implement Monte-Carlo methods, for which we provide detailed numerical recipes. We test these against the current benchmark Hybrid scheme and find remarkable agreement (for a large range of values of H). This rDonsker Theorem further provides a weak convergence proof for the Hybrid scheme itself, and allows to construct binomial trees for rough volatility models, the first available scheme (in the rough volatility context) for early exercise options such as American or Bermudan.

A Solution to the Time-Scale Fractional Puzzle in the Implied Volatility

In the option pricing literature, it is well known that (i) the decrease in the smile amplitude is much slower than the standard stochastic volatility models and (ii) the term structure of the at-the-money volatility skew is approximated by a power-law function with the exponent close to zero. These stylized facts cannot be captured by standard models, and while (i) has been explained by using a fractional volatility model with Hurst index H > 1 / 2 , (ii) is proven to be satisfied by a rough volatility model with H < 1 / 2 under a risk-neutral measure. This paper provides a solution to this fractional puzzle in the implied volatility. Namely, we construct a two-factor fractional volatility model and develop an approximation formula for European option prices. It is shown through numerical examples that our model can resolve the fractional puzzle, when the correlations between the underlying asset process and the factors of rough volatility and persistence belong to a certain range. More specifically, depending on the three correlation values, the implied volatility surface is classified into four types: (1) the roughness exists, but the persistence does not; (2) the persistence exists, but the roughness does not; (3) both the roughness and the persistence exist; and (4) neither the roughness nor the persistence exist.