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Pricing Swaptions from Black Implied Volatility Quotes

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Olórin

Summary

This note examines how Bloomberg’s swaption volatility quotes relate to Black-model prices, focusing on a EUR cash-settled payer swaption. It defines the normal cumulative distribution and Black formula, then distinguishes the physical-settlement annuity from the cash-settlement annuity. The resulting pricing expressions multiply the Black option value by the relevant annuity, with an additional expiry discount factor in the cash-settled expression.

The author compares a quoted volatility and forward swap rate with a Quick Pricer output, calculating a cash-settled annuity and Black value that produce a price far below the displayed result. This discrepancy motivates questions about Bloomberg’s quote conventions and pricing implementation. The note does not resolve the mismatch or establish whether its cash-settled formula is correct; it also flags uncertainty about the expiry discount factor. Treat the calculations as a worked diagnostic example, not confirmation of market convention.

Key ideas

  • Swaption prices under the Black model combine the option value with a settlement-specific annuity.
  • Physical settlement uses an annuity discounted from the fixed-leg payment dates.
  • Cash settlement uses an annuity computed from the forward swap rate and includes an expiry discount factor in the stated formula.
  • A worked EUR example reveals a substantial gap between the author’s calculated price and Bloomberg’s Quick Pricer output.
  • The document raises questions about quote conventions but does not explain the pricing discrepancy.

Tags

Full text
# Swaption : Bloomberg Black implied volatility quotes and pricing in the Black model


# Swaption : Bloomberg Black implied volatility quotes and pricing in the Black model












I used a lot Bloomberg's VCUB for data, but never used its integrated swaption pricer "Quick Pricer for Swaptions", nor Bloomberg's "full" swaption pricer from "SWPM -OV".

I am retrospectively quite puzzled by how they quote the swaptions implied volatilities as well as by the results of their Quick Pricer for Swaptions. These doubts puzzle me in turn about how the markets themselves quote swaption implied volatilities. All notations used below are defined in the end "Notations" section. (Especially the two "black" prices, I guess they are correct, even if I now have doubts about the cash-settled one, about the rightful presence of the $P_{0,T_{\textrm{exp}}}^{OIS}$ bit.)

Concerning the results of their Quick Pricer for Swaptions :

This is for EUR swaptions (they are still cash-settled in VCUB, and will apparently be physically-settled as of mid june according to Bloomberg) as of 20190603 (3rd june) the volatility being indeed a Black volatility in %. I am pricing a 1Y into 10Y ATM payer (I would have to pay the fixed rate) swaption.

Applying Black Formula (for cash-settled swaption) from the notation section I find that the black bit is equal to 0.0026425037403560968, and that the cash-settled annuity is equal to 9.01629985437 (for a spot forwar start rate equal to 2.2089%). Doing the product I find 0.3222, and multiplying this by the zero coupon bit $P_{0,T_{\textrm{exp}}}^{OIS}$ (equal to 1.0166666666666666) won't make it for sure near the 2.36 from the picture.

Notations.

$$ \mathscr{N}(z) \equiv \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\int_{-\infty}^{z} e^{-\frac{t^2}{2}} dt $$

$$ d\left(k,s,\nu,\varepsilon\right) \equiv \frac{\ln\left(\frac{s}{k}\right) + \varepsilon\frac{\nu^2}{2}}{\nu} $$

$$ \textrm{Black}\left(k,s,\nu,\varepsilon\right) \equiv \varepsilon\left( s \mathscr{N}\left( \varepsilon d\left(k,s,\nu,1\right)\right) - k \mathscr{N}\left( \varepsilon d\left(k,s,\nu,-1\right)\right) \right) $$

For a fixed leg schedule $\{T_0, T_1, \ldots, T_n\}$ of a forward swap starting at the swaption's expiry, one notes $\delta_i = \delta_{T_{i-1}; T_i}$ the year fraction represented by $[T_{i-1},T_i]$ (and calculated for the basis of the fixed leg of the forward swap), and :

$$ A_t^{\left[ T_0,\ldots,T_n \right]} \equiv \sum_{i=1}^n \delta_i P_{t,T_i}^{\textrm{OIS}} $$ the usual (physically-settled) annuity

and

$$ C^{\left[ T_0,\ldots,T_n \right]}(T,x) \equiv \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{\delta_i}{\left( 1 + \delta_i x \right)^{\delta_{T,T_i}}} $$ the cash-settled annuity, where $T \mapsto P_{0,T}^{\textrm{OIS}}$ denotes the OIS discount curve.

For a given strike $K$, option expiry $T_{\textrm{exp}}$ and implied volatility $\hat{\sigma}_{T_{\textrm{exp}}, K}$ for physically settled swaption the corresponding price of a physically-settled swaption is :

$$ \pi_0^{p.s.,\textrm{Mkt}} = A_{0}^{\left[ T_0,\ldots,T_n \right]} \times \textrm{Black}\left(K,s_0,\widehat{\sigma}_{T_{\textrm{exp}},K}\sqrt{T_{\textrm{exp}}},\varepsilon\right) $$

If the implied volatility is for cash-settled swaptions then the corresponding price of a cash-settled swaption is :

$$ \pi_0^{c.s.,\textrm{Mkt}} = P_{0,T_{\textrm{exp}}}^{OIS} \times C^{\left[ T_0,\ldots,T_n \right]}\left( T_{\textrm{exp}}, s_{0} \right) \times \textrm{Black}\left(K,s_{0},\widehat{\sigma}_{T_{\textrm{exp}},K}\sqrt{T_{\textrm{exp}}},\varepsilon\right) $$ (In both previous formulas $s_0$ is the forward swap rate at the pricing date.)

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.