This paper proposes a new explanation for the smile and skewness effects in implied volatilities. Starting from a microeconomic equilibrium approach, we develop a diffusion model for stock prices explicitly incorporating the technical demand induced by hedging strategies. This leads to a...

Estimation theory has shown, due to the limited estimation window available for real asset data, the sample based Markowitz mean-variance approach produces unreliable weights which fluctuate substantially over time. This paper proposes an alternate approach to portfolio optimization, being the...

This paper introduces a general market modeling framework, the benchmark approach, which assumes the existence of the numeraire portfolio. This is the strictly positive portfolio that when used as benchmark makes all benchmarked nonnegative portfolios supermartingales, that is intuitively...

This paper derives a unified framework for portfolio optimization, derivative pricing, financial modeling and risk measurement. It is based on the natural assumption that investors prefer more or less, in the sense that the higher drift is preferred. Each such investor is shown to hold an...

This paper proposes a consistent benchmark approach to price weather derivatives. The growth optimal portfolio to price weather derivatives. The growth optimal portfolio is used as numeraire such that all benchmarked fair price processes are martingales. No measure transformation is needed for...

This paper makes use of an integrated benchmark modelling framework that allows us to model credit risk. We demonstrate how to price contingent claims by taking expectations under the real world probability measure in a benchmarked world. Furthermore, put and call options on an index are studied...

This paper considers a class of incomplete financial market models with security price processes that exhibit intensity based jumps. The benchmark or numeraire is chosen to be the growth optimal portfolio. Portfolio values, when expressed in units of the benchmark, are local martingales. In...

This paper proposes an approach to the intraday analysis of diversified world stock accumulation indices. The growth optimal portfolio (GOP) is used as reference unit or benchmark in a continuous financial market model. Diversified portfolios, covering the world stock market, are constructed and...

This paper introduces a benchmark approach for the modelling of continuous, complete financial markets when an equivalent risk neutral measure does not exist. This approach is based on the unique characterization of a benchmark portfolio, the growth optimal portfolio, which is obtained via a...

In financial modelling, filtering and other areas the underlying dynamics are often specified via stochastic differential equations (SDEs) of jump-diffusion type. The class of jump-diffusion SDEs that admits explicit solutions is rather limited. Consequently, there is a need for the systematic...