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The holder chooses at a specified time between a European call option and a European put option with the same later maturity and strike. Put-call parity makes its value equal to a call of the original maturity plus a put of the choice-time maturity with appropriately discounted strike.

The monetary amount delivered by a contingent claim at its payment time, represented by a random variable measurable with respect to the information then available. For a European call option it is $(S_T-K{)}^{+}$, and for a European put option it is $(K-S_T{)}^{+}$. A payoff is the delivered amount, whereas the claim is the contract and its current price is the cost of acquiring or replicating that contract.

A European put option that becomes worthless when its continuously monitored lower barrier is touched. The alive state has $s>B$ and no earlier hit. A terminal building block for the Black-Scholes reflection symmetry is $F=C(K)-C(B)+(K-B)C_d(B)$ for $0<B<K$. Its terminal payoff is $(K-S{)}^{+}{1}_{S\ge B}$. The alive price is $F(s,t)-(s/B{)}^{1-2r/{\sigma }^2}F(B^2/s,t)$ and is set to zero after any hit.

For an alive barrier-triggered put, the difference from the corresponding European put option is the displayed discounted conditional expectation, evaluated under the risk-neutral measure. To prove it, condition the European payoff on the first hitting time or expiry and use the Strong Markov property. At a hit, continuation of the European claim is worth $P(B,{\tau }_B;K)$, whereas the fixed exercise rule pays $K-B$ immediately. On survival to expiry the two payoffs coincide. The relevant stopped quantities are bounded, so the conditional-expectation argument is justified.

A European call option gives its holder the right, without an obligation, to buy one unit of an underlying financial asset at the strike price $K$ on the expiry date $T$. European describes exercise timing, not geography: exercise is allowed only at $T$. Here the underlying is one stock share, $S_T$ is its price at expiry, and the financial payoff is expressed as a cash amount. Physical exercise delivers a share against payment of $K$; immediate resale gives the same net amount under the assumed frictionless market.

The holder exercises only when buying at the strike price is advantageous. Writing $x^{+}=\max (x,0)$ for the positive part, the terminal financial payoff isThe European call option is a reusable building block for claim replication: its financial payoff is zero below the strike price and rises by one unit for each unit of stock price above it. The corner at $K$ lets combinations of European call options construct other payoff shapes, as in static replication on a finite terminal support.

For strike price $K=100$, the following are deterministic calculations conditional on each displayed terminal stock price. They assign no probabilities to the three scenarios. The European put option has the opposite exercise right and the financial payoff $(K-S_T{)}^{+}$.

A financial payoff excludes the initial contract price. If the illustrative European call option costs $C_0=10$, its financial payoff at $S_T=120$ is $20$, and subtracting its initial cost gives $10$. If that cost is instead borrowed for one year at the constant continuously compounded interest rate $r=0.05$, the terminal net amount is $20-10e^{0.05}\approx 9.48728904$. At $S_T=80$ or $100$, the corresponding net amount is $-10e^{0.05}\approx -10.51271096$. Keeping all cash amounts at the same date avoids confusing a financial payoff with a financed gain.

Robert Shiller's Options Markets lecture, Yale ECON 252 (2011) introduces these exercise rights and payoff shapes.

A European put option gives its holder the right, without an obligation, to sell one unit of an underlying financial asset at the strike price $K$ only on the expiry date $T$. For one stock share, its terminal financial payoff is the positive partFor strike price $K=100$, terminal stock prices $80$, $100$, and $120$ give financial payoffs $20$, $0$, and $0$, respectively. At $S_T=80$, selling for $100$ rather than the market price $80$ supplies the difference $20$; at $S_T=120$, the holder can let the right expire. Equality at $S_T=100$ gives zero net exercise value. The European call option example plots both financial payoffs on the same axes.

Combining a European put option with the underlying stock share produces the terminal amount $S_T+(K-S_T{)}^{+}=\max (S_T,K)$. Its floor at the strike price is why a European put option can describe protection against a fall in terminal stock value. The protection has an initial cost and lasts to the specified expiry; the terminal floor alone says nothing about the financial return. Put-call parity replicates this same amount with a European call option and a zero-coupon bond.

Using the put-call parity example's price $P_0=10+100e^{-0.05}-100\approx 5.12294245$, the cost financed for one year at interest rate $r=0.05$ grows to $P_0{e}^{0.05}=100-90e^{0.05}\approx 5.38560133$. The terminal net amount is therefore approximately $14.61439867$ when $S_T=80$, and $-5.38560133$ when $S_T=100$ or $120$. These computations use the unrounded price and distinguish the financial payoff from the financed gain. Unlike an American put option, a European put option supplies no right to exercise before $T$.

put-call parity and nonnegativity of the European put option giveFor $r\ge 0$ this is at least $S-K$, and the call value is also nonnegative, so $C^E$ dominates the immediate call exercise contingent claim payoff. Its discounted price is a martingale. At any admissible exercise time, optional stopping theorem therefore bounds the expected discounted call option by the European call option price. Exercising at maturity attains that price. Hence American and European calls coincide for this non-dividend model with nonnegative rates.

For the strict put comparison assume $r>0$, $\sigma >0$, $S>0$ and $t<T$. Choose $u$ strictly between $t$ and $T$. A European put option at $u$ has value at most $K{e}^{-r(T-u)}$. On the eventimmediate exercise gives $K-S_u>K{e}^{-r(T-u)}\ge P^E(u,S_u)$. This event has positive probability because the lognormal stock density is positive on $(0,\infty )$. Exercise there at time $u$, and otherwise hold to maturity. This strategy strictly improves the European put option expected value, provingunder these positive-rate, pre-maturity assumptions.

The source's strict statement needs those qualifications. At maturity the prices agree, and at $r=0$ the put option is a convex function of the martingale stock and therefore is a submartingale, so waiting to maturity is optimal and the American and European puts coincide. Negative rates also invalidate the nonnegative-rate call argument. These are mathematical assumptions of the comparison, rather than changes to the printed question.

At maturity debt receives the smaller of face value and firm assets:Thus it is equivalent to a zero-coupon payment $F$ minus a European put option on the firm value. Its time-$t$ price isEquity receives the residual $(V_T-F{)}_{+}$, hence is a European call option:put-call parity verifies $E_t+D_t=V_t$, consistent with the stated balance-sheet identity. As with the replication arguments elsewhere, the physical drift $\mu$ does not enter these option prices.

As insurance against credit default, the payment is the positive shortfall of recovery below face value:Thus the credit default swap in this question is one $m$th of a European put option on the firm value. Its price isEquivalently, adding this insurance to one corporate bond produces a sure unit payment, so its price is $e^{-rT}$ minus the bond price from part (b). This also fixes the positive orientation of the printed “difference”: insurance compensates face value minus recovery.

Write $\tau =T-t$. In the Black-Scholes formula, both $d_1$ and $d_2$ depend on $x,K$ only through $\log (x/K)$. Replacing them by $\lambda x,\lambda K$ leaves that ratio unchanged. Each prefactor in the put formula acquires the same factor $\lambda$, givingThis is degree-one homogeneity of the European put option price in its spot and strike together.

The terminal stock prices and European put option payoffs areLet $q$ be the risk-neutral up probability. Risk-neutral pricing and the supplied discounted-price condition giveso $9q^2-27q+14=0$. Its roots are $2/3$ and $7/3$; only the first is a probability. ThereforeThe current put price is $V_0=8/1.1^2=800/121$ pounds. This interest rate is specific to part (c), and differs from the zero rate in part (b).

Differentiate the Black-Scholes formula for the European put option with respect to its strike. The chain rule givesThe final two terms cancel by both identities in part i. Hence the put-price strike derivative is

The barrier-triggered put exercises at the particular stopping time ${\tau }_B\wedge T$. The American put option optimizes over all allowed exercise times, soIt can be strictly smaller, but can never exceed the American value. Equality is possible if immediate exercise is already triggered and optimal; a fixed barrier is not generally the optimal finite-maturity exercise rule.

The comparison with the European put option can go in either direction. By the early exercise premium for a fixed barrier,Thus an early payment gains interest but sacrifices remaining put time value; the expression inside braces need not have a fixed sign for arbitrary barriers.

For a concrete general construction take current spot $S\ge K$, $r>0$, $\sigma >0$, and $t<T$. Set $\gamma =2r/{\sigma }^2$ and $b_{\infty }=K\gamma /(1+\gamma )$, the perpetual put option exercise boundary. For $0<B<b_{\infty }$, the perpetual value at $B$ equals $K-B$ and strictly dominates the finite-maturity European value. The premium formula and positive probability of hitting $B$ therefore give $E_B>P$. Strictness follows from the perpetual verification argument: before a fixed positive expiry, its discounted value loses drift $rK$ whenever the stock is below $b_{\infty }$, with positive expected occupation time when started at $B<b_{\infty }$.

Conversely, for $B<K$ sufficiently close to $K$, every possible payment of the exploding put is at most $K-B$, whether paid at touch or on surviving to expiry. Hence $0\le E_B\le K-B\to 0$, while $P(S,t;K)>0$. This gives $E_B<P$ for such barriers, and also strict inequality below the American value.

These examples establish both possibilities in general, not a claim that every fixed initial state admits both. If $S<b_{\infty }$ and only alive barriers $B<S$ are allowed, all those barriers are in the same perpetual stopping region and the premium comparison is nonnegative.

For strike $K>0$ and maturity $T$, a European call option and a European put option have boundary conditionsThe Black-Scholes equation is solved backward from these conditions. At zero stock price, the zero state is absorbing in geometric Brownian motion, soAt the other boundary, with $\tau =T-t>0$,These conditions and a suitable growth bound select the financial solution and provide boundary data for numerical truncations. In the constant-coefficient model, under the risk-neutral measure,For $d_1=[\log (S/K)+(r+{\sigma }^2/2)\tau ]/(\sigma \sqrt{\tau })$ and $d_2=d_1-\sigma \sqrt{\tau }$, the exercise event is $Z>-d_2$. Completing the square in $e^{\sigma \sqrt{\tau }Z}$ times the normal density gives the truncated first moment and hencewhere $\Phi$ is the standard normal cumulative distribution function. These are the Black-Scholes formula values and satisfy the specified terminal and boundary conditions.

Put-call parity is the relationA call minus a put has terminal financial payoff $S_T-K$. A portfolio of one share minus a zero-coupon bond paying $K$ has the same financial payoff, so absence of arbitrage and law of one price equate their current values. The formula here assumes the same strike and maturity and no dividends; known dividends modify the stock-side value.

The terminal European put option payoffs are zero at forty-five, thirty-six and sixteen, and five at ten. At the good first node its value is zero. At the bad node its continuation value is $(4/5)[(5/6)0+(1/6)5]=2/3$, below the exercise payoff three, so optimal exercise occurs there. At time zero the continuation value is $(4/5)[(3/8)0+(5/8)3]=\boxed{3/2}$, exceeding the immediate payoff zero.

To hedge one sold American put option, short $1/6$ of a share and put four in the bank at time zero. The portfolio costs $-15/6+4=3/2$, exactly the premium. At time one the bank holds five. After a good move the short position costs five to close, exhausting the portfolio and liability. After a bad move it costs two to close, leaving three for the exercised put. Thus after two bad periods the rational buyer already exercised at time one, and the hedge pays three and closes then; there is no remaining time-two obligation. Physical delivery gives the same accounting by immediately selling the stock received on exercise.

The difference of the terminal European call option and European put option payoffs is $S_T^1-K$. Replicating that difference by one share and a borrowing position gives conditional put-call parityThus the call is more valuable exactly when the right side is positive. With a put selected at equality, the chooser option payoff isAt equality both choices have the same price, even though their eventual payoffs can differ. Put-call parity assumes no dividends or other intermediate stock cash flows, as in the stated asset-price model.

Put $K^{\prime }=K(1+r{)}^{t_0-T}$. At the choice time,Buy a European call option of strike $K$ and maturity $T$, together with a European put option of strike $K^{\prime }$ and maturity $t_0$. If the call is selected, the short-maturity put expires worthless. If the put is selected, sell the call and combine its value with the short-maturity put's cash payment; put-call parity makes this exactly enough to buy the maturity-$T$ put. This self-financing replication provesIt requires tradability of the priced options at the choice time, but not completeness of every other market claim. The identity also covers $t_0=0$ and $t_0=T$.

Write $q_{15},q_{12},q_9$ for the state probabilities under an equivalent martingale measure. Since cash is constant and the European put option pays only in the lowest state, the pricing equations areTheir unique solution is $q_9={\xi }_0/2$, $q_{15}={\xi }_0/2-2/3$, $q_{12}=5/3-{\xi }_0$. Every physical state has positive probability, so equivalence requires all three values to be strictly positive. ThusFor each price in this open interval the pricing kernel takes values $3q_{15},3q_{12},3q_9$ in the three equally likely states, proving absence of arbitrage.

The necessity, including the exclusion of endpoints, can also be checked directly. The three terminal payoff vectors of cash, the stock and the European put option form the invertible matrixEach unit state payoff therefore has a replicating strategy, whose initial cost is the corresponding $q$. A zero or negative $q$ supplies an arbitrage, so the endpoints are genuinely excluded.

Write $(a,b,c)$ for holdings of cash, the stock and the European put option, and let $\gamma =-V_0$ be initial consumption. At the given price, $a=-10b-c-\gamma$, and the three terminal payoffs, in descending order of the stock price, areNonnegative terminal payoffs require $c+\gamma \le 2b$ and $c-\gamma \ge b$. Together with $\gamma \ge 0$, these imply $b\ge 2\gamma \ge 0$. If $b=0$ they force $\gamma =c=a=0$, which is not an arbitrage. If $b>0$, the highest-state payoff is at least $3b>0$, so every such choice is an arbitrage. Consequently the complete set isThe pure-investment arbitrages are exactly the choices $\gamma =0$:For example, $(a,b,c)=(-11,1,1)$ costs zero and pays $(4,1,0)$.

Now $R=1+r=9/8$. The local risk-neutral up probabilities solve $RS=q{S}_u+(1-q)S_d$. They areThe terminal payoff of the European put option with strike $5$ is $0,0,2$ at stock prices $7,5,3$. Backward option pricing gives time-one valuesand henceThe first-period stock holding in the replicating portfolio in a binomial market isThus the hedge initially shorts $2/9$ of a share.