Derivatives pricing is quantitative finance’s oldest deep-math tradition, and this hub holds the collection’s densest concentration of stochastic calculus. The research spans pricing models (jump diffusions, stochastic volatility, rough volatility), numerical methods (Monte Carlo variants, PDE solvers, ML surrogates for high-dimensional pricing), and the newer deep hedging literature that learns hedge ratios directly under transaction costs.
The quadrant system earns its keep here: much of this work is mathematically airtight but empirically untested (“Lab Rats” in our scoring), which is fine for pricing engines and dangerous for trading claims. When a paper proposes a new model, the questions that matter are calibration stability — does it fit today’s surface without absurd parameters tomorrow — and hedging performance out of sample, not merely in-sample fit to option quotes.
Related hubs: Volatility Modeling, Fixed Income & Rates, Machine Learning for Forecasting.
This paper addresses the challenge of model uncertainty in quantitative finance, where decisions in portfolio allocation, derivative pricing, and risk management rely on estimating stochastic models from limited data. In practice, the unavailability of the true probability measure forces reliance on
We examine the empirical performance of some parametric and nonparametric estimators of prices of options with a fixed time to maturity, focusing on variance-gamma and Heston models on one side, and on expansions in Hermite functions on the other side. The latter class of estimators can be seen as p
We extend the Lindquist-Rachev (LR) option-pricing framework–which values derivatives in markets lacking a traded risk-free bond–by introducing common Levy jump dynamics across two risky assets. The resulting endogenous “shadow” short rate replaces the usual risk-free yield and governs discounting
We propose a deep hedging framework for index option portfolios, grounded in a realistic market simulator that captures the joint dynamics of S&P 500 returns and the full implied volatility surface. Our approach integrates surface-informed decisions with multiple hedging instruments and explicitly a
We extend the scope of differential machine learning and introduce a new breed of supervised principal component analysis to reduce dimensionality of Derivatives problems. Applications include the specification and calibration of pricing models, the identification of regression features in least-squ
We extend the signature-based primal and dual solutions to the optimal stopping problem recently introduced in [Bayer et al.: Primal and dual optimal stopping with signatures, to appear in Finance & Stochastics 2025], by integrating deep-signature and signature-kernel learning methodologies. These a
We propose a new risk sensitive reinforcement learning approach for the dynamic hedging of options. The approach focuses on the minimization of the tail risk of the final P&L of the seller of an option. Different from most existing reinforcement learning approaches that require a parametric model of
We present a dynamic hedging scheme for S&P 500 options, where rebalancing decisions are enhanced by integrating information about the implied volatility surface dynamics. The optimal hedging strategy is obtained through a deep policy gradient-type reinforcement learning algorithm. The favorable inc
In this paper, we present an artificial neural network framework for portfolio compression of a large portfolio of European options with varying maturities (target portfolio) by a significantly smaller portfolio of European options with shorter or same maturity (compressed portfolio), which also rep
Stratification can reduce the estimator variance in Monte Carlo simulations by partitioning the sample space according to a low-dimensional factor and sampling separately within the resulting strata, making it well suited to the valuation of path-dependent claims in high-dimensional financial models
Deep hedging learns trading policies from historical or simulated market trajectories, yet under nonstationarity these training paths may not represent future market conditions. We propose WRAP (Wasserstein-Reweighting Adversarial Perturbation), a drift-aware adversarial training framework derived f
We introduce a deep kernel hedging framework that combines the flexibility of deep learning with the structural inductive bias of kernel methods. The hedging functional is restricted to a reproducing kernel Hilbert space whose kernel is parameterized through a neural network embedding of the input f
Pricing multi-asset options via the Black-Scholes PDE is limited by the curse of dimensionality: classical full-grid solvers scale exponentially in the number of underlyings and are effectively restricted to three assets. Practitioners typically rely on Monte Carlo methods for computing complex inst
The increasing need for rapid recalibration of option pricing models in dynamic markets places stringent computational demands on data generation and valuation algorithms. In this work, we propose a hybrid algorithmic framework that integrates the smooth offset algorithm (SOA) with supervised machin
We propose a convolution-FFT method for pricing European options under the Heston model that leverages a continuously differentiable representation of the joint characteristic function. Unlike existing Fourier-based methods that rely on branch-cut adjustments or empirically tuned damping parameters,
We introduce a conditional Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Model (DDPM) for generating arbitrage-free implied volatility (IV) surfaces, offering a more stable and accurate alternative to existing GAN-based approaches. To capture the path-dependent nature of volatility dynamics, our model is condit
This work investigates the computational burden of pricing binary options in rare event regimes and introduces an adaptation of the adaptive multilevel splitting (AMS) method for financial derivatives. Standard Monte Carlo becomes inefficient for deep out-of-the-money binaries due to discontinuous p
We present a deep learning framework for pricing options based on market-implied volatility surfaces. Using end-of-day S&P 500 index options quotes from 2018-2023, we construct arbitrage-free volatility surfaces and generate training data for American puts and arithmetic Asian options using QuantLib
Random-expiry options are nontraditional derivative contracts that may expire early based on a random event. We develop a methodology for pricing these options using a trinomial tree, where the middle path is interpreted as early expiry. We establish that this approach is free of arbitrage, derive i
In this research, we explore neural network-based methods for pricing multidimensional American put options under the BlackScholes and Heston model, extending up to five dimensions. We focus on two approaches: the Time Deep Gradient Flow (TDGF) method and the Deep Galerkin Method (DGM). We extend th