The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner's Guide (Wiley Finance) [Hardcover]

Jim Gatheral (Author), Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Wiley Finance | Publication Date: August 28, 2006

Praise for The Volatility Surface


"I'm thrilled by the appearance of Jim Gatheral's new book The Volatility Surface. The literature on stochastic volatility is vast, but difficult to penetrate and use. Gatheral's book, by contrast, is accessible and practical. It successfully charts a middle ground between specific examples and general models--achieving remarkable clarity without giving up sophistication, depth, or breadth."
--Robert V. Kohn, Professor of Mathematics and Chair, Mathematical Finance Committee, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University

"Concise yet comprehensive, equally attentive to both theory and phenomena, this book provides an unsurpassed account of the peculiarities of the implied volatility surface, its consequences for pricing and hedging, and the theories that struggle to explain it."
--Emanuel Derman, author of My Life as a Quant

"Jim Gatheral is the wiliest practitioner in the business. This very fine book is an outgrowth of the lecture notes prepared for one of the most popular classes at NYU's esteemed Courant Institute. The topics covered are at the forefront of research in mathematical finance and the author's treatment of them is simply the best available in this form."
--Peter Carr, PhD, head of Quantitative Financial Research, Bloomberg LP Director of the Masters Program in Mathematical Finance, New York University

"Jim Gatheral is an acknowledged master of advanced modeling for derivatives. In The Volatility Surface he reveals the secrets of dealing with the most important but most elusive of financial quantities, volatility."
--Paul Wilmott, author and mathematician

"As a teacher in the field of mathematical finance, I welcome Jim Gatheral's book as a significant development. Written by a Wall Street practitioner with extensive market and teaching experience, The Volatility Surface gives students access to a level of knowledge on derivatives which was not previously available. I strongly recommend it."
--Marco Avellaneda, Director, Division of Mathematical Finance Courant Institute, New York University

"Jim Gatheral could not have written a better book."
--Bruno Dupire, winner of the 2006 Wilmott Cutting Edge Research Award Quantitative Research, Bloomberg LP

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…I do recommend this book…” (Zentralblatt MATH , Vol. 1118 2007/20)

From the Inside Flap

Understanding the volatility surface is a key objective for both practitioners and academics in the field of finance. Implied volatilities evolve randomly and so models of the volatility surface—which is formed from implied volatilities of all strikes and expirations—need to explicitly reflect this randomness in order to accurately price, trade, and manage the risk of derivative products.

Author and financial professional Jim Gatheral is intimately familiar with these issues and, in The Volatility Surface, he shares his many years of knowledge and experience to help make sense of it all. Written by a practitionerfor practitioners, The Volatility Surface examines why options are priced as they are and—starting from a powerful representation of implied volatility in terms of a weighted average ofrealized volatilities—explores the implications of various popular models for pricing.

The first half of this book focuses on setting up the theoretical framework, while the later chapters are oriented towards practical applications. Informative and accessible, The Volatility Surface:

• Contains a detailed derivation of the Heston model and explanations of many other popular models such as SVJ, SVJJ, SABR, and CreditGrades
• Discusses the characteristics of various types of exotic options from the humble barrier option to the super exotic Napoleon
• Exhaustively covers volatility derivatives with elegant and robust presentations of the latest research
• Examines performance of exotic cliquet contracts through in-depth case studies of actual bonds that have already matured

The purpose of The Volatility Surface is not to just present results, but to provide you with ways of thinking about and solving practical problems that should have many other areas of application. So by the time you finish reading this guide, you'll have a firm understanding of volatility surface modeling as well as a better idea of how you can apply the results of these models to real-world situations.

Filled with in-depth insights, expert advice, and real-world examples, The Volatility Surface will get you up to speed on the latest theories underlying options pricing as well as familiarize you with the history and practice of trading in the equity derivatives markets.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471792519
• ISBN-13: 978-0471792512
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Option Pricing for the 21st Century, October 26, 2006

By 

Neil A. Chriss (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner's Guide (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

The Volatility Surface is an-ultra modern account of derivatives pricing and hedging. Indeed of the fifty-two bibliographical references a mere twenty were written before 1999. The book makes the case for option pricing models which incorporate randomness into stock price volatility (stochastic volatility) and jumps into stock price movements. By themselves these are not new models, but a coherent understanding of their relationship to the dynamics of the volatility surface and to derivatives valuation is new, and Gatheral does an admirable job of presenting a great deal of the most modern work in this area - including some of his own - in one place.

The topic is necessarily mathematical in nature and Gatheral spares the reader nothing of the full-on mathematical treatment; but he nevertheless manages to distill the essence of the most important mathematics into easily accessible, intuitive explanations that supplement the readers understanding. Thus this book should have broad appeal to practitioners of all levels, especially traders and those familiar with the basics of derivatives valuation. Gatheral succeeds in this vein so well, I believe, because he is a first-rate quant and a a long-time senior quant at Merril Lynch.

The book gives an excellent treatment of the relationship between stock price dynamics which actually explain option prices observed in the market and the necessity of studying the volatility surface to have a complete understanding of derivatives valuation. He does a great job of justifying the key models he reviews and then studies the implications for derivatives valuation.

As an expert practitioner, his choices reflect what is really out there in the market, so readers should pay attention. As a first rate quant, his mathematics and his grasp of the literature on option pricing will expose readers to the best of the best.

Of particular note is his last chapter on volatility instruments, in particular variance swaps, volatility swaps and options on volatility. This is an important market that was just getting started in the late 1990s but has burgeoned into one of the most active and important markets in equity derivatives. This chapter is a must for anyone interested in understanding the subtelties involved in understanding variance swap and volatility swap valuation, and is alone worth the cover price.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Review of Stochastic Vol Literature, September 19, 2006

By 

Euan Sinclair (chicago,il) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner's Guide (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

The academic literature on stochastic volatility models is vast and often difficult to understand or at least to gain a coherent view of the field from. This book provides a succinct introduction. It is well written without over simplifying issues.

Things are looked at from the view of a practitioner rather than an academic. Proofs are generally not formal and are designed to stress financial insight over rigour. But it is important to state that "practitioner" means quant rather than trader, and that this is not a piece of light reading!

I was pleased to see sections on asymptotic solutions, volatility derivatives and an introduction to credit but was a little disappointed by the brevity of the bibliography.

A good book to have around.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Applying models to the real world, November 12, 2006

By 

M (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner's Guide (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

The book is a great guide to understanding the different models used on Wall Street to capture the intricacies of modeling and pricing derivatives. The books focus of using models as a tool and NOT a solution is a great reminder to both traders and salespeople.
This summarized when the author describes the pricing of a digital cliquet.
"Those sellers using local Vol models will certainly value a digital cliquet at a lower price than sellers using stochastic volatility. Perversely then, those sellers using an inadequate model will almost certainly win the deal and end up short a portfolio of misvalued forward-starting digital options. OR even worse, a dealer could have an appropriate valuation approach but be pushed internally by the salespeople to match (mistaken) competitors' lower prices."