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 Up: 6.1 American stock options
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SYLLABUS  Previous: 6.1.2 Parameters illustrated with
 Up: 6.1 American stock options
 Next: 6.2 Methods for American
6.1.3 Application
[ SLIDE
Put(CBOE) || same 
VIDEO      as previous section: 
  modem -
  LAN -
  DSL
] 
Using your intuition for the parameters describing the price of an American 
option, we are ready to use the VMARKET applet and compare the 
numerical solution with market prices. Take the 
  American put
from 
  Cisco
that expired on Jan 18, 2003 with a strike at USD 20.
About half a year before the option expiry date (data from Aug 12, 2002, 
i.e. 159/360 = 0.44 year before), the underlying share was trading for USD 
  13.12
with a market volatility around 
  60%
(follow the links to obtain current market data).
Under reasonable assumptions of a 3% spot rate from the US Treasury 
and no dividend payed for that share, the VMARKET applet 
below calculates the fair price using the 
Black-Scholes model with an American exercise style.
    
     
      VMARKET applet:  press Start/Stop 
      to run the simulation until it stops about half a year before the 
      option expires.
      For an approximative solution, you may simply click inside the plot 
      area to measure the payoff V(S) around the coordinate 13.12.
      For a complete printout of the numerical solution, switch from 
      Double-click below in the applet to Print data to console, 
      set TimeStep=0. and press Step 1; 
      the number output can be now read from the Java-console (with Netscape 
      open Communicator->Tools->Java console) where x[] 
      is the price of the underlying, f0[] is the final condition 
      in grey and f[] the solution in black.
      Don't forget to switch back to Double-click below avoiding 
      to overflow the Java console...
     
    |  | 
After interpolation, the value obtained (USD 7.104) is very close to 
the value that was quoted on the
Chicago Board of exchange
CBOE (USD 7.10).