A Jump Diffusion Model for Option Pricing with Three Properties: Leptokurtic Feature, Volatility Smile, and Analytical Tractability

Steven Kou
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Steven Kou: Columbia University

No 62, Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers from Econometric Society

Abstract: Brownian motion and normal distribution have been widely used, for example, in the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing framework, to study the return of assets. However, two puzzles, emerged from many empirical investigations, have got much attention recently, namely (a) the leptokurtic feature that the return distribution of assets may have a higher peak and two (asymmetric) heavier tails than those of the normal distribution, and (b) an empirical abnormity called ``volatility smile'' in option pricing. To incorporate both the leptokurtic feature and ``volatility smile'', this paper proposes, for the purpose of studying option pricing, a jump diffusion model, in which the price of the underlying asset is modeled by two parts, a continuous part driven by Brownian motion, and a jump part with the logarithm of the jump sizes having a double exponential distribution. In addition to the above two desirable properties, leptokurtic feature and ``volatility smile'', the model is simple enough to produce analytical solutions for a variety of option pricing problems, including options, future options, and interest rate derivatives, such as caps and floors, in terms of the $Hh$ function. Although there are many models can incorporate some of the three properties (the leptokurtic feature, ``volatility smile'', and analytical tractability), the current model can incorporate all three under a unified framework.

Date: 2000-08-01
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