Volatility and Correlation: In the Pricing of Equity, FX and Interest-Rate Options (Wiley Series in Financial Engineering) - Hardcover

Rebonato, Riccardo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471899984 ISBN 13: 9780471899983

Publisher: Wiley, 1999

Synopsis

In his new book, Riccardo Rebonato introduces financial professionals to the practical and subtle use of the concepts of volatility (the degree of randomness in a price movement) and correlation (the relationship between the changes in value of two financial assets) in the pricing of complex options.

By explaining this approach in clear and accessible terms, the author provides traders, risk managers, financial professionals and students with the tools to undertake an effective investigation of option pricing models both at the qualitative and quantitative level.

Dr Riccardo Rebonato is Head of Group Market Risk for the NatWest Group, London, UK. He holds Doctorates in Nuclear Engineering and Science of Materials/Solid State Physics. He has recently been appointed Lecturer in Mathematical Finance at Oxford University.

Prior to joining NatWest, he was, at the same time, Head of the Complex Derivatives Trading desk and of the Complex Derivatives Research Group at Barclays Capital, where he worked for nine years. Before that he was a Research Fellow in Physics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford

He is the author of the highly successful book Interest-Rate Option Models (Wiley, second edition 1998) and has published several papers on finance in academic journals. He is a regular speaker at conferences world-wide.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"What is at stake is not some obscure academic point, but lies at the very heart of option pricing, and will inform the users' decisions insofar as their choice of pricing model is concerned." From the Introduction In his new book, Riccardo Rebonato introduces financial professionals to the practical and subtle use of the concepts of volatility (the degree of randomness in a price movement) and correlation (the relationship between the changes in value of two financial assets) in the pricing of complex options. By explaining this approach in clear and accessible terms, the author provides traders, risk managers, financial professionals and students with the tools to undertake an effective investigation of option pricing models both at the qualitative and the quantitative level. "In this book Dr Rebonato brings his penetrating eye to bear on option pricing and hedging. In his usual intuitive style he critically examines a variety of approaches to equity, currency and interest-rate options. The book is full of practical insights that reflect a wealth of experience in applying these models. The book is a 'must read' for those who already know the basics of options and are looking for an edge in applying the more sophisticated approaches that have recently been developed." Professor Ian Cooper, London Business School "This book is a blend of the theoretical, the practical, and the abstract, but always staying in contact with reality. I don't agree with everything in it, but it taught me a thing or two. Read it carefully and thoroughly." Paul Wilmott, author of Derivatives "Volatility and correlation are at the very core of all option pricing and hedging. In this book, Riccardo Rebonato presents the subject in his characteristically elegant and simple fashion. He rightly emphasises the financial and economic assumptions which underpin the models, and gives salutary warnings against models which overfit the current structure of prices but which perform poorly in predicting future behaviour. A rare combination of intellectual insight and practical common sense." Anthony Neuberger, Associate Professor, Institute of Finance and Accounting, London Business School

From the Inside Flap:

Volatility and Correlation in the Pricing of Equity, FX and Interest-Rate Options is split into three sections. In the first, an introduction is presented to the complex concepts of correlation and volatility encountered in equity/FX and interest-rate option pricing, aimed at providing practitioners with a better informed choice when deciding which models to utilise. This first part also highlights the fundamental conceptual difference between interest-rate volatility on the one hand, and of FX and equity volatility on the other. The author then moves on to the problem of smiles, with considerable emphasis placed on option pricing when markets are incomplete. This second part focuses on the need for end users to take an approach, at the same time practical and theoretically sound, when it comes to implementing the various models which can account for smiles. To this effect, many existing models are reviewed and several new, original approaches are presented. The author points out that the temptation of being seduced by the elegance of mathematical models must be tempered by the need to look at the financial mechanisms driving the dynamics of the specific derivative product. The analysis of the third part deals with the role of volatility and correlation in the context of interest-rate models. In particular, it covers in detail practical and powerful calibration techniques to caplet volatilities and correlation surfaces of the state-of-the-art BGM approach, and suggests criteria to choose the functional form for the all-important instantaneous volatility functions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0471899984
• ISBN 13: 9780471899983
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360