Currency option pricing in a credible exchange rate target zone

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 17-07-2012
Number of pages 23
Publisher Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, Department of Economics
Organisations
  • Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) - Amsterdam School of Economics Research Institute (ASE-RI)
Abstract
This article examines currency option pricing within a credible target zone arrangement where
interventions at the boundaries push the exchange rate back into its fluctuation band. Valuation of such options is complicated by the requirement that the reflection mechanism should prevent the arbitrage opportunities that would arise if the exchange rate were to spend finite time on the boundaries. To prevent the latter, we superimpose instantaneously reflecting boundaries upon the
familiar Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) framework. We derive closed-form expressions for
European call and put option prices and show that prices for the GBM model of Garman and Kohlhagen (1983) arise as the limit case for infinitely wide bands. We also illustrate that taking account of boundaries is of considerable economic value as erroneously using the unbounded-domain model of Garman and Kohlhagen (1983) easily overprices options by more than 100%.
Document type Working paper
Language English
Published at http://www1.fee.uva.nl/mint/content/people/content/veestraeten/downloadablepapers/veestraeten%20(2012).pdf
Downloads
submission_Dirk_Veestraeten.pdf (Submitted manuscript)
Permalink to this page
Back