Pricing European Cash-or-Nothing and Asset-or-Nothing Options
Summary
The document defines European asset-or-nothing and cash-or-nothing payoffs and presents their risk-neutral prices. A cash-or-nothing contract pays a fixed amount when the underlying finishes at or above the strike; an asset-or-nothing contract pays the underlying’s value under the same condition. The stated formulas use discounted probabilities for cash payouts and a related normal probability term for asset payouts, with the latter incorporating the underlying’s expected value above the threshold.
The answers outline several derivation routes. One can alter the Black–Scholes PDE boundary conditions or integrate each payoff against the risk-neutral distribution. The cash-or-nothing call can also be viewed as the limiting value of a narrow call spread, linking its price to the strike sensitivity of a vanilla call; the asset-or-nothing payoff can be related to a vanilla call and cash-or-nothing payoff. These formulas assume the standard Black–Scholes setting and its inputs, including volatility, rates, dividends, and time. The exchange offers derivation ideas, not a worked derivation, and one answer contains an unreliable shortcut.
Key ideas
- A cash-or-nothing option pays a fixed amount if the underlying meets the strike condition at expiry.
- An asset-or-nothing option instead pays the underlying asset’s value when that condition is met.
- Risk-neutral valuation gives the cash payoff a discounted probability term and the asset payoff a related adjusted probability term.
- Derivations can use modified Black–Scholes boundary conditions or integrate the payoff under the risk-neutral distribution.
- A cash-or-nothing call can be connected to the limiting price of a narrow call spread.
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# Derivation of the formulas for the values of European asset-or-nothing and cash-or-nothing options
# Derivation of the formulas for the values of European asset-or-nothing and cash-or-nothing options
The asset-or-nothing European option pays at t = T the value of the stock when at time T that value exceeds or is equal to the exercise price E, and nothing if the value of the stock is below E. So, in mathematical terms:
$$V(S,T) = \left\{ \begin{array}{lr} S & \text{if}\quad S \ge E,\\ 0 & \text{if}\quad S < E. \end{array} \right. $$
The cash-or-nothing European option pays at t = T a fixed value B when at time T that value exceeds or is equal to the exercise price E, and nothing if the value of the stock is below E. So, in mathematical terms:
$$V(S,T) = \left\{ \begin{array}{lr} B & \text{if}\quad S \ge E,\\ 0 & \text{if}\quad S < E. \end{array} \right. $$
We know that the formulas for these options are the following: \begin{align} &\text{Cash-or-nothing call:}\quad c_{cn}=Be^{-rT}N(d_2),\\ &\text{Cash-or-nothing put:}\quad p_{cn}=Be^{-rT}N(-d_2),\\ &\text{Asset-or-nothing call:}\quad c_{an}=Se^{-qT}N(d_1),\\ &\text{Asset-or-nothing put:}\quad p_{an}=Se^{-qT}N(-d_1).\\ \end{align}
where $$ d_1=\dfrac{\ln(S/E)+(r-q+\sigma^2/2)(T-t)}{\sigma\sqrt{T-t}} $$ and $$ d_2=d_1-\sigma\sqrt{T-t}. $$
We also know that we are supposed to follow the derivation of Black-Scholes in order to derive these formulas but we are having trouble understanding how it differs from the derivation of Black-Scholes itself.
## Answer by dm63 (score 5)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/31797
You can derive these formulae by tweaking the black scholes derivation. If you are using PDE method, you will use different boundary conditions. If you are using integration over the risk neutral probability , you will use a different payoff function but the same risk neutral density.
Alternatively , you can observe that these payoffs are combinations of regular puts and calls. For example , the cash or nothing call is the limit of a [E, E+dE] call spread as dE tends to zero, so you can obtain it by differentiating the regular black scholes call price by E. Then, the asset or nothing call = the regular call option + the cash or nothing call, so you can derive that one as well.
## Answer by Will Gu (score 3)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/21682
The value of an cash-or-nothing option is just the discounted expected payoff of the option. So the value of such a call should be $e^{-r (T - t)} N \mathbb{P} \left\{ S_T > K \right\}$, where $\mathbb{P} \left\{ S_T > K \right\} = \mathcal{N} \left( d_2 \right)$, and $N$ is the cash agreed to be paid.
The asset-or-nothing is a bit more complicated since it is $e^{-r (T - t)} \mathbb{E} \left[ \left. S_T \right| S_T > K \right]$. The last term is the expected value of stock price given that $S_T > K$. So you would need to use the lognormal stock price and integrate it with pdf of standard normal and "complete the square". You would end up with $e^{(r - q) (T - t)} S_0 \mathcal{N} \left( d_1 \right)$ for that, and the final formula would be $e^{-q (T - t)} S_0 \mathcal{N} \left( d_1 \right)$.
## Answer by X Y (score 3)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/49337
To add a bit to Will Gu's answer:
Compute $\mathbb{E} \left[ \left. S_T \right| S_T > K \right]$ using the fact that $S_T$ is lognormally distributed with mean $ln(S_0) + (r - \sigma^2/2)T$ and variance $\sigma^2 T$. Then find the pdf of the lognormal distribution on, e.g., Wikipedia, and compute the expectation integral. You may find the following useful - see equations (4.12) and (4.8) - though it contains some typos: http://math.uchicago.edu/~may/REU2017/REUPapers/Yoo.pdf
## Answer by user3692159 (score -2)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/31335
Write black and scholes equation, for asset or nothing put K = 0 And for cash or nothing put S = 0 And K = B and discount with time as e^-rTShown 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.