Stochastic volatility models based on Gaussian processes, like fractional Brownian motion, are able to reproduce important stylized facts of financial markets such as rich autocorrelation structures, persistence and roughness of sample paths. This is
made possible by virtue of the flexibility introduced in the choice of the covariance function of the Gaussian process. The price to pay is that, in general, such models are no longer Markovian nor semimartingales, which limits their practical use. We derive, in two different ways, an explicit analytic expression for the joint characteristic function of the log-price and its integrated variance in general Gaussian stochastic volatility models. Such analytic expression can be approximated by closed form matrix expressions. This opens the door to fast approximation of the joint density and pricing of derivatives on both the stock and its realized variance using Fourier inversion techniques. In the context of rough volatility modeling, our results apply to the (rough) fractional Stein--Stein model and provide the first analytic formulae for option pricing known to date, generalizing that of Stein--Stein, Sch{o}bel-Zhu and a special case of Heston.
This paper concerns portfolio selection with multiple assets under rough covariance matrix. We investigate the continuous-time Markowitz mean-variance problem for a multivariate class of affine and quadratic Volterra models. In this incomplete non-Ma
rkovian and non-semimartingale market framework with unbounded random coefficients, the optimal portfolio strategy is expressed by means of a Riccati backward stochastic differential equation (BSDE). In the case of affine Volterra models, we derive explicit solutions to this BSDE in terms of multi-dimensional Riccati-Volterra equations. This framework includes multivariate rough Heston models and extends the results of cite{han2019mean}. In the quadratic case, we obtain new analytic formulae for the the Riccati BSDE and we establish their link with infinite dimensional Riccati equations. This covers rough Stein-Stein and Wishart type covariance models. Numerical results on a two dimensional rough Stein-Stein model illustrate the impact of rough volatilities and stochastic correlations on the optimal Markowitz strategy. In particular for positively correlated assets, we find that the optimal strategy in our model is a `buy rough sell smooth one.
We provide existence, uniqueness and stability results for affine stochastic Volterra equations with $L^1$-kernels and jumps. Such equations arise as scaling limits of branching processes in population genetics and self-exciting Hawkes processes in m
athematical finance. The strategy we adopt for the existence part is based on approximations using stochastic Volterra equations with $L^2$-kernels combined with a general stability result. Most importantly, we establish weak uniqueness using a duality argument on the Fourier--Laplace transform via a deterministic Riccati--Volterra integral equation. We illustrate the applicability of our results on Hawkes processes and a class of hyper-rough Volterra Heston models with a Hurst index $H in (-1/2,1/2]$.
We establish an explicit expression for the conditional Laplace transform of the integrated Volterra Wishart process in terms of a certain resolvent of the covariance function. The core ingredient is the derivation of the conditional Laplace transfor
m of general Gaussian processes in terms of Fredholms determinant and resolvent. Furthermore , we link the characteristic exponents to a system of non-standard infinite dimensional matrix Riccati equations. This leads to a second representation of the Laplace transform for a special case of convolution kernel. In practice, we show that both representations can be approximated by either closed form solutions of conventional Wishart distributions or finite dimensional matrix Riccati equations stemming from conventional linear-quadratic models. This allows fast pricing in a variety of highly flexible models, ranging from bond pricing in quadratic short rate models with rich autocorrelation structures, long range dependence and possible default risk, to pricing basket options with covariance risk in multivariate rough volatility models.
We establish existence and uniqueness for infinite dimensional Riccati equations taking values in the Banach space L 1 ($mu$ $otimes$ $mu$) for certain signed matrix measures $mu$ which are not necessarily finite. Such equations can be seen as the in
finite dimensional analogue of matrix Riccati equations and they appear in the Linear-Quadratic control theory of stochastic Volterra equations.
We provide an exhaustive treatment of Linear-Quadratic control problems for a class of stochastic Volterra equations of convolution type, whose kernels are Laplace transforms of certain signed matrix measures which are not necessarily finite. These e
quations are in general neither Markovian nor semimartingales, and include the fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index smaller than $1/2$ as a special case. We establish the correspondence of the initial problem with a possibly infinite dimensional Markovian one in a Banach space, which allows us to identify the Markovian controlled state variables. Using a refined martingale verification argument combined with a squares completion technique, we prove that the value function is of linear quadratic form in these state variables with a linear optimal feedback control, depending on non-standard Banach space valued Riccati equations. Furthermore, we show that the value function of the stochastic Volterra optimization problem can be approximated by that of conventional finite dimensional Markovian Linear--Quadratic problems, which is of crucial importance for numerical implementation.
How to reconcile the classical Heston model with its rough counterpart? We introduce a lifted version of the Heston model with n multi-factors, sharing the same Brownian motion but mean reverting at different speeds. Our model nests as extreme cases
the classical Heston model (when n = 1), and the rough Heston model (when n goes to infinity). We show that the lifted model enjoys the best of both worlds: Markovianity and satisfactory fits of implied volatility smiles for short maturities with very few parameters. Further, our approach speeds up the calibration time and opens the door to time-efficient simulation schemes.
