MPS-RR 2002-44
December 2002

Pricing of the American Put Under Lévy Processes

by:

Sergei Levendorskii

Abstract

We consider the American put with the finite time horizon, T, assuming that under a chosen equivalent martingale measure stock returns follow a regular Lévy process of exponential type. We formulate the free boundary value problem for the price of the American put, and develop the non-Gaussian analog of the method of lines and Carr's randomization method used in the Gaussian option pricing theory. The result is the (discretized) early exercise boundary and prices of the American put for all strikes and maturities from 0 to T. In the case of exponential jump-diffusion processes, a simple effecient pricing scheme is constructed.

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