Finance Derivative
graph profit diagrams for several
trading strategies. Compute the profit of the strategy at maturity with respect to
different realizations of the stock price in the future and plot the profit diagram (stock
price on x-axis; profit on y-axis) of the strategy.
a. Buying a Straddle: Buy a call with an exercise price of $25 for a price of $3.15 and
buy a put with an exercise price of $25 for $1.25.
b. Writing a Strangle: Sell a call with an exercise price of $80 for a price of $4.75 and
sell a put with an exercise price of $65 for $7.85.
c. Buying a bull spread: Buy a call with an exercise price of $45 for a price of $12.30
and sell a call with an exercise price of $55 for $8.70.
d. Buying a butterfly spread with calls: Buy a call with an exercise price of $35 and a
price of $6.20. Sell two calls with an exercise price of $40 and a price of $4.50.
Finally, buy one call with an exercise price of $45 and a price of $3.75.
e. Writing a butterfly spread with puts: Sell a put with an exercise price of $120 and a
price of $8.50. Buy two puts with an exercise price of $130 and a price of $11.90.
Finally, sell one put with an exercise price of $140 and a price of $22.60.
2. Building a Binomial Tree in EXCEL with Market Data: This problem walks you through
the process of building a binomial tree in EXCEL and using it to price options. In
addition, you will use actual market data to estimate the market parameters that you
need to do this (i.e., the risk-free rate and standard deviation of returns). In this
problem, we will download price data for Amzaon.com, build a binomial tree of
Amazon’s stock price, and finally you will price put and call options on the underlying
AMZN stock using that tree
b. Compute the UP and DOWN factors for a binomial model with weekly price changes
(i.e., ∆t = 1/52). Be sure to use the annualized standard deviation. Also compute the
risk-neutral probability of an UP move. Let’s use the 12-month Treasury rate as the riskfree
rate so that everyone is doing the same thing. (We should use the weekly rate, but
the entire short-end of the yield curve is so close to zero that it hardly matters which
maturity we use).
c. Build a 16-week binomial tree for AMZN (this will take you from October 27 to February
16). The standard way to represent a binomial tree in EXCEL is to have each column
represent a date (step). An UP move is a represented as the column directly to the right
and on the same row. A DOWN move is represented as the column directly to the right
and down one row. As you move across the spreadsheet the columns will grow one row
longer with each step. AMZN closed at $1,100.95 on October 27.
d. Price a 16-week call option on AMZN with a strike price of $1160. Use backward
induction and risk-neutral valuation to work your way back to today’s call price. In
EXCEL, build a second tree. Start by filling in the last column (step 16); these are the
payoffs at maturity that correspond to the stock prices in the last column in the stockprice
tree you built in part c. (Hint: just use a formula like =max(price-1160, 0) where
price references the appropriate cell from the last column of part c.) Work back one
column at time, copy and pasting the risk-neutral valuation formulas. As a benchmark,
the AMZN Feb 1160 call was selling for $39.38 on October 27.
e. Price a 16-week put option on AMZN with a strike price of $1000. As a benchmark, the
AMZN Feb 1000 put was selling for $20.50 on October 27.