Pricing options based on trinomial markov tree

Abstract

A trinomial Markov tree model is studied for pricing options in which the dynamics of the stock price are modeled by the first-order Markov process. Firstly, we construct a trinomial Markov tree with recombining nodes. Secondly, we give an algorithm for estimating the risk-neutral probability and provide the condition for the existence of a validation risk-neutral probability. Thirdly, we propose a method for estimating the volatilities. Lastly, we analyze the convergence and sensitivity of the pricing method implementing trinomial Markov tree. The result shows that, compared to binomial Markov tree, the proposed model is a natural combining tree and, while changing the probability of the node, it is still combining, so the computation is very fast and very easy to be implemented.