Option pricing under stochastic volatility: the exponential Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model

Jaume Masoliver‡ Departament de F́ısica Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal, 647, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain (Dated: May 28, 2008) Abstract We study the pricing problem for a European call option when the volatility of the underlying asset is random and follows the exponential Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model. The random diffusion model proposed is a two-dimensional market process that takes a log-Brownian motion to describe price dynamics and an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck subordinated process describing the randomness of the log-volatility. We derive an approximate option price that is valid when (i) the fluctuations of the volatility are larger than its normal level, (ii) the volatility presents a slow driving force toward its normal level and, finally, (iii) the market price of risk is a linear function of the log-volatility. We study the resulting European call price and its implied volatility for a range of parameters consistent with daily Dow Jones Index data.