Stochastic Volterra Integral Research Articles

A fast algorithm for simulation of rough volatility models

A rough volatility model contains a stochastic Volterra integral with a weakly singular kernel. The classical Euler-Maruyama algorithm is not very efficient for simulating this kind of model because one needs to keep records of all the past path-values and thus the computational complexity is too large. This paper develops a fast two-step iteration algorithm using an approximation of the weakly singular kernel with a sum of exponential functions. Compared to the Euler-Maruyama algorithm, the complexity of the fast algorithm is reduced from to or for simulating one path, where N is the number of time steps. Further, the fast algorithm is developed to simulate rough Heston models with (or without) regime switching, and multi-factor approximation algorithms are also studied and compared. The convergence rates of the Euler-Maruyama algorithm and the fast algorithm are proved. A number of numerical examples are carried out to confirm the high efficiency of the proposed algorithm.