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Solving a Defaultable Bond SDE with a Single Default Jump

Article Quant Q&A · Author: CA-Quant

Summary

The discussion derives a pathwise solution for a bond process that grows at an adapted short rate between jumps and changes multiplicatively when jumps occur. For a compound Poisson jump process with jump sizes Z, each jump multiplies the pre-jump bond value by one plus that jump size. The resulting process is the initial value times the exponential of accumulated drift, multiplied by the product of jump factors. This follows by solving the continuous evolution between jump times and applying the jump update at each event.

For issuer default, the jump size is set to minus one, which reduces the bond value to zero at the first default and leaves it at zero afterward. The answer expresses this using an indicator that the first jump has not yet occurred. There is a sign-convention discrepancy in the source: the question writes a negative jump term, while the general derivation is stated with a positive compound-jump term; the default specialization uses the minus-one jump size. The result assumes the specified jump model and does not address recovery at default.

Key ideas

  • A multiplicative jump of size Z changes the process by the factor one plus Z.
  • Between jumps, the bond value evolves according to the accumulated short-rate drift.
  • The general solution combines exponential drift growth with a product over jump factors.
  • A default jump of minus one makes the modeled bond value zero from the first jump onward.
  • The question and derivation use different jump-term sign conventions, which should be reconciled when applying the formula.

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Full text
# Solution for a SDE for a Bond found in Bugard & Kjaer


# Solution for a SDE for a Bond found in Bugard & Kjaer












I'm going over the paper -Partial Differential Equation Representation of Derivatives with Bilateral Counterparty Risk and Funding Costs- from Burgard and Kjaer. There the following SDE is given for a defaultable bond: $$ dP(t) = r(t)P(t)dt - P(t)dJ(t), $$ where $r(t)$ is an adapted process, and $J(t)$ is a jump process that changes from zero to one on default of the bond issuer.

I'm trying to solve this SDE by finding a closed form formula for $P(t)$, where I'm following the theory given in Steven Shreve's book: -Stochastic Calculus for Finance, Continuous-Time Models- (Chapter 11). I'm attempting to use Ito's formula for jumps, but I'm stuck. Any hints on how to proceed to formally get $P(t)$ from the SDE? Thanks in advance.

## Answer by ir7 (score 5, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/55729

I'll assume $$ J_t = \sum_{i=1}^{N_t} Z_i$$ be a compound Poisson process, with $(T_n)_{n\geq 1}$ being the jump times for Poisson process $(N_t)_{t\geq 0}$ and $(Z_i)_{i\geq 1}$ sequence of i.i.d. variables independent of $(N_t)_{t\geq 0}$.

For SDE

$$ dP_t = P_{t^-} dJ_t $$

we notice that at jump times we have

$$ dP_{T_i} = P_{T_i} - P_{T_i^-} = Z_{i} P_{T_i^-} $$

so

$$ P_{T_i} = (1+Z_i) P_{T_i^-} $$

From here we can conclude that:

$$ P_t = P_0 \prod _{i=1}^{N_t} (1+Z_i) $$

Adding drift

$$ dP_t = r_t P_t dt + P_{t^-} dJ_t $$

gives

$$ P_t = P_0 \mathrm{e}^{\int_0^t r_s ds}\prod _{i=1}^{N_t} (1+Z_i) $$

as between jump times $P_t$ evolves as $ r_t P_t dt$ and gets multiplied by $1+Z_{i}$ at $T_{i}$, starting with

$$ P_t = P_0 \mathrm{e}^{\int_0^t r_s ds} $$

for $t\in [0,T_1)$.

## Answer by Daneel Olivaw (score 2)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/55740

As a complement to @ir7’s comprehensive derivation, in the case of Burgard and Kjaer’s the jump process $J_t$ models the default of the issuer. You specialize the process by setting $Z_1=-1$, while the values of $\{Z_i:i\geq2\}$ are irrelevant. You then notice that as soon as the process jumps once, the product of jump sizes becomes null. We therefore have: $$ P_t = P_0e^{\int_0^tr_sds}\mathbf{1}_{\{N_t=0\}} = P_0e^{\int_0^tr_sds}\mathbf{1}_{\{t<T_1\}} $$ where $T_1$ is the default time of the issuer.

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.