Black–Scholes Pricing with Deterministic Rates and Volatility
Summary
The document explains how to value a European option when interest rates and volatility vary deterministically over time. It derives the conditional distribution of the terminal asset price by integrating the rate and variance over the remaining life of the option. The integrated variance can be represented as an equivalent constant volatility over that period, while the discount factor comes from the integral of the short rate.
The resulting option value has the Black–Scholes form expressed using the forward price, the maturity discount factor, and the integrated variance. The answer also gives the corresponding call or put payoff expression. It motivates the formula through the terminal price distribution rather than by directly substituting time-varying inputs into the constant-parameter equation. This setup assumes deterministic inputs and the risk-neutral drift; the question’s initial process uses a general drift, so pricing requires care to interpret that drift consistently with no-arbitrage valuation.
Key ideas
- With deterministic volatility, terminal log returns remain normally distributed, with variance given by integrated squared volatility.
- The discount factor is determined by integrating the short rate over the option’s remaining life.
- The option can be priced in Black–Scholes form using the forward price and maturity-specific integrated variance.
- The valuation formula assumes risk-neutral dynamics, so the asset drift must be consistent with the short rate.
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Full text
# generalized black scholes
# generalized black scholes
I understand how to derive the black scholes solution if $dS_t$ = $\mu S_tdt$ + $\sigma S_tdW_t$ and r is constant. The solution is c(t, x) = $xN(d_{+}(T - t), x))$ - K$e^{-r(T - t)}N(d\_(T - t), x))$ where $d_{+}(\tau, x)$ = $\frac{1}{\sigma\sqrt{\tau}}$ * $[log\frac{x}{K} + (r + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)\tau]$, $d\_(\tau, x) = d_{+}(\tau, x) - \sigma \sqrt{\tau}$
However, I need to find the solution when, $dS_t = \mu_{t}S_tdt + \sigma_{t}S_tdW_t$ and $r_t$ are deterministic functions of t. I was asked to guess the solution, so it must be a very close analogue to the solution above. I thought about integrating over time, but I haven't been able to verify that this works, and I do need to verify the solution.
Any help in figuring out what the form and how to go about verifying that it is a solution would be appreciated.
Update: Someone asked to see some extra work, here is my guess of what the solution should be: c(t, x) = $xN(d_{+}(T - t), x))$ - $Ke^{-\int_0^{T - t}r_udu}$N(d_(T - t), x)) where $d_{+}(\tau, x) = \frac{1}{\int_0^\tau \sigma_udu}$ * $[log\frac{x}{K} + \int_0^\tau (r + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)]$, $d\_(\tau, x) = d_{+}(\tau, x) - \int_0^\sqrt{\tau} \sigma_udu$.
I don't know if this guess is even correct, and if it is I need to verify that it is a solution the Black-Scholes PDE.
## Answer by Gordon (score 6, accepted)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/17023
What you need is to identify the distribution of the asset price $S_T$, conditional on the information set $\mathcal{F}_{t}$ at time $t$, for $0\leq t < T$. Note that \begin{align*} S_T &= S_t \exp\bigg(\int_{t}^T \Big(r_s-\frac{\sigma_s^2}{2}\Big)ds + \int_t^T\sigma_s dW_s \bigg). \end{align*} Let \begin{align*} P(t, T) = \exp\bigg(-\int_t^T r_s ds \bigg), \end{align*} and \begin{align*} \hat{\sigma} = \sqrt{\frac{1}{T-t}\int_t^T\sigma_s^2 ds}. \end{align*} Then \begin{align*} S_T &= F(t, T)e^{-\frac{\hat{\sigma}^2}{2}(T-t) + \hat{\sigma}\sqrt{T-t} Z}, \end{align*} where $F(t, T)=S_t/P(t, T)$ is the forward price, and $Z$ is a standard normal random variable independent of $\mathcal{F}_t$. Consequently, the value at time $t$ of the option payoff $[\psi(S_T-K)]^+$, where $\psi = \pm 1$, is given by \begin{align*} P(t, T) E\Big([\psi(S_T-K)]^+ \mid \mathcal{F}_t \Big) &= P(t, T)\psi\big[F(t, T) N(\psi d_1) - KN(\psi d_2) \big], \end{align*} where \begin{align*} d_{1} = \frac{\ln F(t, T)/K + \frac{\hat{\sigma}^2}{2}(T-t)}{\hat{\sigma}\sqrt{T-t}}, \end{align*} and \begin{align*} d_2 = d_1 - \hat{\sigma}\sqrt{T-t}. \end{align*}Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)
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