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Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions

This dissertation investigates break-even volatility in the context of the South African interest rate market. Introduced by Dupire (2006), break-even volatility is a retrospective measure defined as the volatility that ensures the profit or loss from a delta hedged option position is zero. Break-ev...

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Main Author: Cresswell, Wade
Other Authors: Mahomed, Obeid
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author Cresswell, Wade
author2 Mahomed, Obeid
author_browse Cresswell, Wade
Mahomed, Obeid
author_facet Mahomed, Obeid
Cresswell, Wade
author_sort Cresswell, Wade
collection Thesis
description This dissertation investigates break-even volatility in the context of the South African interest rate market. Introduced by Dupire (2006), break-even volatility is a retrospective measure defined as the volatility that ensures the profit or loss from a delta hedged option position is zero. Break-even volatility sheds light on the inner structure of the market and is a promising investigatory tool. Insurance houses in South Africa are interested in modelling long-dated interest rate derivatives embedded within their liabilities. In pursuit of this goal, some are currently calibrating the Lognormal Forward-LIBOR Market Model to market prices. They rarely directly trade in said derivatives, but merely delta hedge their risk daily. In this case, break-even volatility surfaces become more relevant than recovering market prices (which incorporate the banks risk premium and profit margin) as it should better represent the historical cost of replicating the option under consideration. This dissertation ultimately assesses the use of the Lognormal Forward-LIBOR Market Model in the South African interest rate market using break-even volatility. It is found that several caps and swaptions are trading at volatilities that differ significantly from their break-even volatility estimates. Furthermore, through an investigation into the calibration of the Lognormal Forward-LIBOR Market Model to break-even volatilities, an argument that the underlying dynamics of the model are incompatible with that of the South African interest rate market is developed.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:35:16.678Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management
publisherStr African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31435 Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions Cresswell, Wade Mahomed, Obeid Mathematical Finance This dissertation investigates break-even volatility in the context of the South African interest rate market. Introduced by Dupire (2006), break-even volatility is a retrospective measure defined as the volatility that ensures the profit or loss from a delta hedged option position is zero. Break-even volatility sheds light on the inner structure of the market and is a promising investigatory tool. Insurance houses in South Africa are interested in modelling long-dated interest rate derivatives embedded within their liabilities. In pursuit of this goal, some are currently calibrating the Lognormal Forward-LIBOR Market Model to market prices. They rarely directly trade in said derivatives, but merely delta hedge their risk daily. In this case, break-even volatility surfaces become more relevant than recovering market prices (which incorporate the banks risk premium and profit margin) as it should better represent the historical cost of replicating the option under consideration. This dissertation ultimately assesses the use of the Lognormal Forward-LIBOR Market Model in the South African interest rate market using break-even volatility. It is found that several caps and swaptions are trading at volatilities that differ significantly from their break-even volatility estimates. Furthermore, through an investigation into the calibration of the Lognormal Forward-LIBOR Market Model to break-even volatilities, an argument that the underlying dynamics of the model are incompatible with that of the South African interest rate market is developed. 2020-03-02T11:48:39Z 2020-03-02T11:48:39Z 2019 2020-03-02T09:43:15Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31435 eng application/pdf African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management Faculty of Commerce
spellingShingle Mathematical Finance
Cresswell, Wade
Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions
title_full Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions
title_fullStr Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions
title_full_unstemmed Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions
title_short Break-even volatility for caps, floors and swaptions
title_sort break even volatility for caps floors and swaptions
topic Mathematical Finance
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31435
work_keys_str_mv AT cresswellwade breakevenvolatilityforcapsfloorsandswaptions