Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 23 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
One alternative is a stochastic volatility model, such as the Heston model:The parameters satisfy and , and . The square-root Itô diffusion has a nonnegative solution; is a standard sufficient condition for the positive initial variance not to hit zero. Mean reversion of allows persistent high- and low-volatility episodes, and negative can produce the empirical association between falling prices and rising volatility. Mixtures of conditional return distributions produce richer tails and option implied volatility shapes than constant-volatility geometric Brownian motion.
For data showing volatility clustering and option smiles, this is often a more useful fit. It is not universally superior: more parameters create estimation and calibration uncertainty, the model is more expensive to use, and its continuous price paths still exclude price jumps. With two independent noise directions and only a stock and a bank account, the market is generally incomplete, so a volatility risk premium or an extra traded instrument is needed for unique contingent claim pricing. The alternative improves flexibility at the cost of calibration and hedging complexity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 211 2 c Solution 2026-10-03
By the bound in part (a), Fubini's theorem applies. Conditional on ,where the Characteristic function of the Cauchy distribution was used. Since ,The formula expresses a European call option value through complex moments of . In an affine stochastic-volatility model such as the Heston model, those moments are available from an explicit transform, so call prices reduce to a one-dimensional Fourier expectation or integral.