Discounting Cash Flows in a Black–Scholes Delta Hedge Simulation

# European Call option replication


# European Call option replication












An asset $S_t$ is evolving according to the Black-Scholes model. We want to replicate a call option on this asset by holding Delta units of the asset at every time.

I use a Monte Carlo algorithm to compute the mean cost of this replication strategy. I would expect this cost to be somewhat close, on average, to the payoff of the corresponding call option, but I find that this is not the case at all.

My question is: is there a problem with my implementation?

Here is my code: (I skip the import numpy as np and the definition of the Delta)

```
def make_path(spot, r, d, vol, T, N):
    dt = T/(N-1)
    Z = np.insert(np.random.normal(size=N-1), 0, 0)
    X = np.exp((r-d-vol**2/2) * np.linspace(0,T,N) + np.cumsum(vol * math.sqrt(dt) * Z)) 
    path = spot *  X
    return path
def make_time(T,N):
    return np.linspace(0,T,N)
def hedging_portfolio(path, strike, r, d, vol, T):
    t = make_time(T,len(path))
    alpha = delta_of_call(path[:-1], strike, r, d, vol, T-t[:-1])
    cashflow = alpha * (path[1:] - path[:-1])
    return np.sum(cashflow)
spot = 100
strike = 100
r = 0.0
d = 0.0
vol = 0.1
T = 1
N = 10000
path = make_path(spot,r,d,vol,T,N)
x = (hedging_portfolio(path, strike,r, d, vol, T), max(path[-1]-strike,0) - call_option(spot,strike,r,d,vol,T))
print(x)
```

Edit: I realized part of my mistake. First, as pointed out by Ivan, my path generation had a typo but this was not the source of the problem since r=0 in my example. The problem was that I was comparing the cost of setting up this portfolio to the final payoff, whereas I should look at the difference between the payoff and the price of the call option. I modified my code accordingly. This now works when interest rates are zero. When they are non zero, there is still a problem. The cost of setting up this portfolio should be equal to the difference between the payoff and the price of the call option.

## Answer by user11823918 (score 1)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/49109

Ok, I found the problem. I was not discounting the value according to interest rate. The following modified code works fine for non-zero interest rate. When dividends rate are non zero, it is probably better to hedge using a forward contract instead of the asset itself. I will skip this for now.

```
def hedging_portfolio(path, strike, r, d, vol, T):
   t = make_time(T,len(path))
   dt = t[1]
   alpha = delta_of_call(path[:-1], strike, r, d, vol, T-t[:-1])
   cashflow = alpha * (path[1:] - path[:-1]*np.exp(r*dt))*np.exp(r*(T-t[1:]))
   return np.sum(cashflow)
path = make_path(spot,r,d,vol,T,N)
x = hedging_portfolio(path, strike,r, d, vol, T)
y = max(path[-1]-strike,0) - call_option(spot,strike,r,d,vol,T)*np.exp(r*T)
print(x)
print(y)
```

Now $x=y$ as wanted.