Testing and finding the generating functions of an option pricing mechanism through market data

Abstract

We study dynamic pricing mechanisms of financial derivatives. A typical model of such pricing mechanism is the so-called g-expectation defined by solutions of a backward stochastic differential equation with g as its generating function. Black-Scholes pricing model is a special linear case of this pricing mechanism. We are mainly concerned with two types of pricing mechanisms in an option market: the market pricing mechanism through which the market prices of options are produced, and the ask-bid pricing mechanism operated through the system of market makers. The later one is a typical nonlinear pricing mechanism. Data of prices produced by these two pricing mechanisms are usually quoted in an option market.

We introduce a criteria to test if a dynamic pricing mechanism under investigation is a g-pricing mechanism. This domination condition was statistically tested using CME data documents. The result of test is significantly positive. We also provide some useful characterizations of a pricing mechanism by its generating function.