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A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods

The Monte Carlo method (MC) is a common numerical technique used to approximate an expectation that does not have an analytical solution. For certain problems, MC can be inefficient. Many techniques exist to improve the efficiency of MC methods. The Multilevel Monte Carlo (ML) technique developed Gi...

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Main Author: Jain, Rohin
Other Authors: McWalter, Thomas
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author Jain, Rohin
author2 McWalter, Thomas
author_browse Jain, Rohin
McWalter, Thomas
author_facet McWalter, Thomas
Jain, Rohin
author_sort Jain, Rohin
collection Thesis
description The Monte Carlo method (MC) is a common numerical technique used to approximate an expectation that does not have an analytical solution. For certain problems, MC can be inefficient. Many techniques exist to improve the efficiency of MC methods. The Multilevel Monte Carlo (ML) technique developed Giles (2008) is one such method. It relies on approximating the payoff at different levels of accuracy and using a telescoping sum of these approximations to compute the ML estimator. This dissertation summarises the ML technique and its implementation. To start with, the framework is applied to a European call option. Results show that the efficiency of the method is up to 13 times faster than crude MC. Then an American put option is priced within the ML framework using two pricing methods. The Least Squares Monte Carlo method (LSM) estimates an optimal exercise strategy at finitely many instances, and consequently a lower bound price for the option. The dual method finds an optimal martingale, and consequently an upper bound for the price. Although the pricing results are quite close to the corresponding crude MC method, the efficiency produces mixed results. The LSM method performs poorly within an ML framework, while the dual approach is enhanced.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:24.523Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
publishDateSort 2021
publisher African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management
publisherStr African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32754 A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods Jain, Rohin McWalter, Thomas Mathematical Finance The Monte Carlo method (MC) is a common numerical technique used to approximate an expectation that does not have an analytical solution. For certain problems, MC can be inefficient. Many techniques exist to improve the efficiency of MC methods. The Multilevel Monte Carlo (ML) technique developed Giles (2008) is one such method. It relies on approximating the payoff at different levels of accuracy and using a telescoping sum of these approximations to compute the ML estimator. This dissertation summarises the ML technique and its implementation. To start with, the framework is applied to a European call option. Results show that the efficiency of the method is up to 13 times faster than crude MC. Then an American put option is priced within the ML framework using two pricing methods. The Least Squares Monte Carlo method (LSM) estimates an optimal exercise strategy at finitely many instances, and consequently a lower bound price for the option. The dual method finds an optimal martingale, and consequently an upper bound for the price. Although the pricing results are quite close to the corresponding crude MC method, the efficiency produces mixed results. The LSM method performs poorly within an ML framework, while the dual approach is enhanced. 2021-02-02T19:48:25Z 2021-02-02T19:48:25Z 2020 2021-01-29T08:20:08Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32754 eng application/pdf African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management Faculty of Commerce
spellingShingle Mathematical Finance
Jain, Rohin
A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods
title_full A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods
title_fullStr A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods
title_full_unstemmed A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods
title_short A Review of Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods
title_sort review of multilevel monte carlo methods
topic Mathematical Finance
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32754
work_keys_str_mv AT jainrohin areviewofmultilevelmontecarlomethods
AT jainrohin reviewofmultilevelmontecarlomethods