Pricing a Swaption by Integrating the Swap-Rate Payoff
Summary
The document clarifies what it means to complete pricing by integrating a modeled future swap rate. The target is not to integrate the rate merely to recover its current value, which follows from its martingale property under the swap measure. Instead, the pricing step computes the expected option payoff: the positive part of the difference between the future swap rate and the fixed strike, multiplied by the value of the swap annuity used as numeraire.
Assuming the swap rate is lognormally distributed under Black’s model, the payoff expectation is integrated against the standard normal density. This yields the familiar closed-form expression involving normal cumulative probabilities and two terms for the swap rate and strike. The explanation also recalls that a martingale has conditional expectation equal to its current value, while a geometric Brownian asset representation is not automatically a martingale without the appropriate drift adjustment and measure. The result depends on the stated model and measure assumptions.
Key ideas
- The martingale property gives the conditional expected swap rate, but it does not by itself price a swaption.
- Swaption value is the annuity value multiplied by the expected positive payoff under the swap measure.
- Under the lognormal Black assumption, integrating the payoff against a normal density gives a closed-form price.
- The pricing formula depends on using the appropriate numeraire and probability measure.
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# Integration to calculate expected value of swap rate
# Integration to calculate expected value of swap rate
In Hagan's paper on valuing CMS swaps (Convexity Conundrums: Pricing CMS Swaps, Caps, and Floors), there is:
> So the swap rate must also be a Martingale, and $$E \big[ R_s(\tau) \big| \mathcal{F}_0 \big]=R_s(0) = R_s^0$$ To complete the pricing, one now has to invoke a mathematical model (Black’s model, Heston’s model, the SABR model, . . . ) for how $R_s(\tau)$ is distributed around its mean value $R_s^0$. In Black’s model, for example, the swap rate is distributed according to $$R_s(\tau) = R_s(0)e^{\sigma x\sqrt{\tau}-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2\tau}$$ where x is a normal variable with mean zero and unit variance. One completes the pricing by integrating to calculate the expected value.
And he stopped here. So I am trying to "complete the pricing by integrating", but I am not sure of what he actually meant. I think he just wants to get the swap rate $R_s(0)$, but I am not sure.
This integration would lead to:
$$ R_s(0) = E \big[ R_s(\tau) \big| \mathcal{F}_0 \big] = \int_{-\infty}^{+\infty} R_s(\tau) \frac{-\frac{x^2}{2}}{\sqrt{2\pi}}dx = \int_{-\infty}^{+\infty} R_s(0)e^{\sigma\sqrt{\tau}x-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2\tau} \frac{-\frac{x^2}{2}}{\sqrt{2\pi}}dx $$
This does not make sens, since $R_s(0)$ is on both side of the equation. Maybe I am not looking at it the right way, and he meant something else. Or maybe my integration is wrong.
I am a bit lost here. Any help would be appreciated to understand how to "complete this pricing".
## Answer by Gordon (score 2, accepted)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/25632
He meant to compute the swaption price given by (2.4a), that is, \begin{align*} V_{opt} = L_0 E\left((R_s(\tau)-R_{fix})^+ \mid \mathcal{F}_0 \right). \end{align*} Under the swap measure (i.e., with $L_t$ as the numeraire), the swap rate process $\{R_s(t), t \ge 0\}$ is a martingale, and is assumed to be of the form \begin{align*} R_s(\tau) = R_s^0 e^{\sigma X \sqrt{\tau} -\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2\tau }, \end{align*} where $X$ is a standard normal random variable. Then \begin{align*} V_{opt} &= L_0\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\left(R_s^0 e^{\sigma x \sqrt{\tau} -\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2\tau }-R_{fix} \right)^+ \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}e^{-\frac{x^2}{2}}dx\\ &=L_0\big[R_s^0 N(d_1) - R_{fix} N(d_2) \big], \end{align*} where \begin{align*} d_1 = \frac{\ln \frac{R_s^0}{R_{fix}}+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 \tau}{\sigma \sqrt{\tau}}, \end{align*} and \begin{align*} d_2 = d_1 -\sigma \sqrt{\tau}. \end{align*}
## Answer by Rerito (score 1)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/25584
Let's recall the definition of a Martingale first: it is a stochastic process $X(t)$ that has the following property: let $0 \leq t < T$ two real numbers. Let $\mathcal{F}_t$ be a filtration for the process $X$ at time $t$. We have then:
$$ \mathbb{E}[X(T)|\mathcal{F}_t] = X(t) $$
Now, if you use Black's model, you describe your asset price using a geometric Brownian motion. This is not a martingale. Let's study it a bit more:
$$ S(t) = S_0 \exp{(\sigma \sqrt{t} W(t) - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 t)} $$
If you consider the logarithm of this process, you'll establish that it follows a normal law of mean $\ln S_0 - \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2t$ and variance $\sigma^2 t$. By going a bit more into calculus you can establish it has the Markov property, but this is not a martingale.Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.