Implied Volatility - Solving The Inverse Pricing Model Function

Solving The Inverse Pricing Model Function

In general, a pricing model function, f, does not have a closed-form solution for its inverse, g. Instead, a root finding technique is used to solve the equation:

While there are many techniques for finding roots, two of the most commonly used are Newton's method and Brent's method. Because options prices can move very quickly, it is often important to use the most efficient method when calculating implied volatilities.

Newton's method provides rapid convergence; however, it requires the first partial derivative of the option's theoretical value with respect to volatility; i.e., which is also known as vega (see The Greeks). If the pricing model function yields a closed-form solution for vega, which is the case for Black–Scholes model, then Newton's method can be more efficient. However, for most practical pricing models, such as a binomial model, this is not the case and vega must be derived numerically. When forced to solve for vega numerically, it usually turns out that Brent's method is more efficient as a root-finding technique.

Read more about this topic:  Implied Volatility

Famous quotes containing the words solving the, solving, inverse, model and/or function:

    More than a decade after our fellow citizens began bedding down on the sidewalks, their problems continue to seem so intractable that we have begun to do psychologically what government has been incapable of doing programmatically. We bring the numbers down—not by solving the problem, but by deciding it’s their own damn fault.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    Certainly, young children can begin to practice making letters and numbers and solving problems, but this should be done without workbooks. Young children need to learn initiative, autonomy, industry, and competence before they learn that answers can be right or wrong.
    David Elkind (20th century)

    Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul. The spirit sports with time.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    She represents the unavowed aspiration of the male human being, his potential infidelity—and infidelity of a very special kind, which would lead him to the opposite of his wife, to the “woman of wax” whom he could model at will, make and unmake in any way he wished, even unto death.
    Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)

    Of all the inhabitants of the inferno, none but Lucifer knows that hell is hell, and the secret function of purgatory is to make of heaven an effective reality.
    Arnold Bennett (1867–1931)