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Using Householder’s method to improve the accuracy of the closed-form formulas for implied volatility

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Abstract

Existing closed-form formulas for implied volatilities perform differently for options with different moneyness and maturities. When the accuracy requirement is high, one usually resorts to Newton’s method to obtain accurate results. While this method works well, the procedure is no longer a closed-form expression and an unknown number of iterations are required. To achieve high accuracy over a wide range of moneyness and maturities without losing their closed-form nature, we propose to use Householder’s method to enhance the existing formulas. We derive the general form of the high order derivatives (with respect to volatility) of the Black–Scholes pricing function and its reciprocal function, which leads to the iterative formula of Householder’s method in closed-form. Our numerical analysis demonstrates the performance improvements when Householder’s method is applied to three best formulas in the literature and discusses how the required level of accuracy depends on moneyness and maturities.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under the Grant Number 107-2410-H-011-005.

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Correspondence to Daniel Wei-Chung Miao.

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Miao, D.WC., Lin, X.CS. & Lin, CY. Using Householder’s method to improve the accuracy of the closed-form formulas for implied volatility. Math Meth Oper Res 94, 493–528 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00186-021-00763-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00186-021-00763-9

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