← Search

Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 26 No. 2-3 2002

GARCH vs. stochastic volatility: Option pricing and risk management

Alfred Lehar1; Martin Scheicher2; Christian Schittenkopf3

1 University of Vienna · 2 Central Bank of Austria, Otto-Wagner Platz 3, 1011 Vienna, Austria · 3 Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

In this paper we compare the out-of-sample performance of two common extensions of the Black–Scholes option pricing model, namely GARCH and stochastic volatility (SV). We calibrate the three models to intraday FTSE 100 option prices and apply two sets of performance criteria, namely out-of-sample valuation errors and Value-at-Risk (VaR) oriented measures. When we analyze the fit to observed prices, GARCH clearly dominates both SV and the benchmark Black–Scholes model. However, the predictions of the market risk from hypothetical derivative positions show sizable errors. The fit to the realized profits and losses is poor and there are no notable differences between the models. Overall, we therefore observe that the more complex option pricing models can improve on the Black–Scholes methodology only for the purpose of pricing, but not for the VaR forecasts.

DOI
10.1016/s0378-4266(01)00225-4
Volume
26
Issue
2-3
Pages
323-345
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

Cite