Empirical Analysis of the Model-Free Valuation Approach: Hedging Gaps, Conservatism, and Trading Opportunities

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Hauptverfasser: Chen, Zixing, Qi, Yihan, Que, Shanlan, Sester, Julian, Zhang, Xiao
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Chen, Zixing
Qi, Yihan
Que, Shanlan
Sester, Julian
Zhang, Xiao
author_facet Chen, Zixing
Qi, Yihan
Que, Shanlan
Sester, Julian
Zhang, Xiao
contents In this paper we study the quality of model-free valuation approaches for financial derivatives by systematically evaluating the difference between model-free super-hedging strategies and the realized payoff of financial derivatives using historical option prices from several constituents of the S&P 500 between 2018 and 2022. Our study allows in particular to describe the realized gap between payoff and model-free hedging strategy empirically so that we can quantify to which degree model-free approaches are overly conservative. Our results imply that the model-free hedging approach is only marginally more conservative than industry-standard models such as the Heston-model while being model-free at the same time. This finding, its statistical description and the model-independence of the hedging approach enable us to construct an explicit trading strategy which, as we demonstrate, can be profitably applied in financial markets, and additionally possesses the desirable feature with an explicit control of its downside risk due to its model-free construction preventing losses pathwise.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_16595
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Empirical Analysis of the Model-Free Valuation Approach: Hedging Gaps, Conservatism, and Trading Opportunities
Chen, Zixing
Qi, Yihan
Que, Shanlan
Sester, Julian
Zhang, Xiao
Pricing of Securities
Mathematical Finance
Risk Management
Trading and Market Microstructure
In this paper we study the quality of model-free valuation approaches for financial derivatives by systematically evaluating the difference between model-free super-hedging strategies and the realized payoff of financial derivatives using historical option prices from several constituents of the S&P 500 between 2018 and 2022. Our study allows in particular to describe the realized gap between payoff and model-free hedging strategy empirically so that we can quantify to which degree model-free approaches are overly conservative. Our results imply that the model-free hedging approach is only marginally more conservative than industry-standard models such as the Heston-model while being model-free at the same time. This finding, its statistical description and the model-independence of the hedging approach enable us to construct an explicit trading strategy which, as we demonstrate, can be profitably applied in financial markets, and additionally possesses the desirable feature with an explicit control of its downside risk due to its model-free construction preventing losses pathwise.
title Empirical Analysis of the Model-Free Valuation Approach: Hedging Gaps, Conservatism, and Trading Opportunities
topic Pricing of Securities
Mathematical Finance
Risk Management
Trading and Market Microstructure
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16595