Pricing an FX Call Payable in Its Domestic Currency
Summary
The document prices a foreign exchange call whose payoff is converted into the same currency used to value the option. It starts from the payoff expressed in the foreign currency, then uses a change of numeraire between the domestic and foreign risk-neutral measures to derive its value. Under the assumed constant volatility and deterministic interest rates, the resulting expression is the standard Black–Scholes call value scaled by the spot exchange rate.
It also rewrites the payoff using the reciprocal exchange rate and shows that this reciprocal representation gives the same price. The derivation identifies the relevant forward exchange rate, discount factors, and normal distribution terms. The result depends on the stated currency convention, constant volatility, and the assumed interest-rate setup; it is not a treatment of stochastic rates or volatility, nor a general discussion of market conventions for FX options.
Key ideas
- A currency conversion in the option payoff affects both the payoff representation and the pricing measure.
- Changing from the domestic to the foreign risk-neutral measure yields a Black–Scholes expression for the converted payoff.
- The call payoff can be rewritten using the reciprocal exchange rate, linking it to a put-like payoff.
- The reciprocal formulation and direct formulation produce equal prices under the stated assumptions.
- The derivation assumes constant volatility and specified domestic and foreign interest rates.
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# Pricing an fx option in the same currency
# Pricing an fx option in the same currency
Let imagine we have an option from EUR to USD priced in EUR, therefore the payoff for a call is:
$$\frac{(S - K)^{+}}{S} = K (1/K - 1/S)^{+}$$ This is basically the payoff of a price of a put on 1/S multiply by K.
The discounted expectation gives the price. What is the way to price this option with Black Scholes?
## Answer by Gordon (score 6)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/44541
Let $P^d$ and $P^f$ denote the respective USD and EUR risk-neutral measures. We assume that, under the USD risk-neutral measure, \begin{align*} dS_t = S_t \Big(\big(r^d-r^f \big)dt +\sigma dW_t \Big), \end{align*} where
- $r^d$ and $r^f$ denote respectively the USD and EUR interest rates,
- $\sigma$ is the constant volatility, and
- $W_t$ is a standard Brownian motion.
Then \begin{align*} \frac{dP^f}{dP^d}\big|_t &= \frac{S_t B^f_t}{S_0 B^d_t}\\ &=\exp\left(-\frac{\sigma^2}{2}t +\sigma W_t\right), \end{align*} where $B^d_t$ and $B^f_t$ are the respective USD and EUR money-market account values at time $t$. Consequently, \begin{align*} \hat{W}_t = W_t -\sigma t \end{align*} is a standard Brownian motion under the EUR risk-neutral measure. Moreover, \begin{align*} d\frac{1}{S_t} &= \frac{1}{S_t}\Big(\big(r^f-r^d +\sigma^2\big)dt -\sigma dW_t \Big)\\ &=\frac{1}{S_t}\Big(\big(r^f-r^d \big)dt +\sigma d(-\hat{W}_t) \Big) \\ &=\frac{1}{S_t}\Big(\big(r^f-r^d \big)dt +\sigma d\tilde{W}_t \Big), \end{align*} where $\tilde{W}_t = -\hat{W}_t$ is also a standard Brownian motion under the foreign risk-neutral measure.
Let $E^d$ and $E^f$ be expectations corresponding to USD and EUR risk-neutral measures $P^d$ and $P^f$. Then \begin{align*} E^f\bigg( \frac{1}{B^f_TS_T} (S_T-K)^+\bigg) &= E^d\bigg(\frac{S_T B^f_T}{S_0 B^d_T} \frac{1}{B^f_TS_T} (S_T-K)^+\bigg)\\ &= \frac{1}{S_0}E^d\bigg(\frac{1}{B^d_T} (S_T-K)^+\bigg)\\ &= e^{-r^d T}\frac{1}{S_0}\left[F\Phi(d_1) - K\Phi(d_2) \right], \end{align*} where
- $F= S_0 e^{(r^d-r^f)T}$,
- $\Phi$ is the cumulative distribution function of a standard normal random variable,
- $d_1 = \Big[\ln \frac{S_0}{K} + \big(r^d-r^f + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 \big)T\Big]/(\sigma \sqrt{T})$, and
- $d_2 = d_1 -\sigma \sqrt{T}$.
Similarly, \begin{align*} E^f\bigg(\frac{K}{B^f_T}\Big(\frac{1}{K} - \frac{1}{S_T}\Big)^+\bigg) &= e^{-r^f T} K\bigg[\frac{1}{K}\Phi(-\hat{d}_2) -\hat{F}\Phi(-\hat{d}_1) \bigg], \end{align*} where
- $\hat{F}= \frac{1}{S_0}e^{(r^f-r^d)T}$,
- $\hat{d}_1 = \Big[\ln \frac{K}{S_0} + \big(r^f-r^d + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 \big)T\Big]/(\sigma \sqrt{T}) = -d_2$, and
- $\hat{d}_2 = \hat{d}_1 - \sigma \sqrt{T} = -d_1$.
Then, \begin{align*} E^f\bigg(\frac{K}{B^f_T}\Big(\frac{1}{K} - \frac{1}{S_T}\Big)^+\bigg) &= e^{-r^f T} K\bigg[\frac{1}{K}\Phi(-\hat{d}_2) -\hat{F}\Phi(-\hat{d}_1) \bigg]\\ &=e^{-r^f T} K\bigg[\frac{1}{K}\Phi(d_1) -\hat{F}\Phi(d_2) \bigg]\\ &= e^{-r^d T}\frac{1}{S_0}\left[F\Phi(d_1) - K\Phi(d_2) \right]. \end{align*}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.