We consider a tractable affine stochastic volatility model that generalizes the seminal Heston model by augmenting it with jumps in the instantaneous variance process. In this framework, we consider both realized variance options and VIX options, and we examine the impact of the distribution of jumps on the associated implied volatility smile. We provide sufficient conditions for the asymptotic behavior of the implied volatility of variance for small and large strikes. In particular, by selecting alternative jump distributions, we show that one can obtain fundamentally different shapes of the implied volatility of variance smile-some clearly at odds with the upward-sloping volatility skew observed in variance markets.

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The Multi Variate Mixture Dynamics model is a tractable, dynamical, arbitragefree multivariate model characterized by transparency on the dependence structure, since closed form formulae for terminal correlations, average correlations and copula function are available. It also allows for complete decorrelation between assets and instantaneous variances. Each single asset is modelled according to a lognormal mixture dynamics model, and this univariate version is widely used in the industry due to its flexibility and accuracy. The same property holds for the multivariate process of all assets, whose density is a mixture of multivariate basic densities. This allows for consistency of single asset and index/portfolio smile.In this paper, we generalize the MVMD model by introducing shifted dynamics and we propose a definition of implied correlation under this model. We investigate whether the model is able to consistently reproduce the implied volatility of FX cross rates once the single components are calibrated to univariate shifted lognormal mixture dynamics models. We consider in particular the case of the Chinese renminbi FX rate, showing that the shifted MVMD model correctly recovers the CNY/EUR smile given the EUR/USD smile and the USD/CNY smile, thus highlighting that the model can also work as an arbitrage free volatility smile extrapolation tool for cross currencies that may not be liquid or fully observable.We compare the performance of the shifted MVMD model in terms of implied correlation with those of the shifted Simply Correlated Mixture Dynamics model where the dynamics of the single assets are connected naively by introducing correlation among their Brownian motions. Finally, we introduce a model with uncertain volatilities and correlation. The Markovian projection of this model is a generalization of the shifted MVMD model.

The multi variate mixture dynamics model is a tractable, dynamical, arbitrage-free multivariate model characterized by transparency on the dependence structure, since closed form formulae for terminal correlations, average correlations and copula function are available. It also allows for complete decorrelation between assets and instantaneous variances. Each single asset is modelled according to a lognormal mixture dynamics model, and this univariate version is widely used in the industry due to its flexibility and accuracy. The same property holds for the multivariate process of all assets, whose density is a mixture of multivariate basic densities. This allows for consistency of single asset and index/portfolio smile. In this paper, we generalize the MVMD model by introducing shifted dynamics and we propose a definition of implied correlation under this model. We investigate whether the model is able to consistently reproduce the implied volatility of FX cross rates once the single components are calibrated to univariate shifted lognormal mixture dynamics models. We consider in particular the case of the Chinese Renminbi FX rate, showing that the shifted MVMD model correctly recovers the CNY/EUR smile given the EUR/USD smile and the USD/CNY smile, thus highlighting that the model can also work as an arbitrage free volatility smile extrapolation tool for cross currencies that may not be liquid or fully observable. We compare the performance of the shifted MVMD model in terms of implied correlation with those of the shifted simply correlated mixture dynamics model where the dynamics of the single assets are connected naively by introducing correlation among their Brownian motions. Finally, we introduce a model with uncertain volatilities and correlation. The Markovian projection of this model is a generalization of the shifted MVMD model.

We develop some simple simulation algorithms for CIR and Wishart processes. We investigate rigorously the square of a matrix valued Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, the main idea being to split the generator and to reduce the problem to the simulation of the square of a matrix valued Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process to be added to a deterministic process. In this way, we provide a weak second-order scheme that requires only the simulation of i.i.d. Gaussian r.v.'s and simple matrix manipulations.