Option Pricing Via Genetic Programming

Abstract

We propose a methodology of Genetic Programming to approximate the relationship between the option price, its contract terms and the properties of the underlying stock price. An important advantage of the Genetic Programming approach is that we can incorporate currently known formulas, such as the {Black-Scholes} model, in the search for the best approximation to the true pricing formula. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the Genetic Programming model approximates the true solution better than the {Black-Scholes} model when stock prices folow a jump-diffusion process. We also show that the Genetic Programming model outperforms various other models when pricing options in the real world. Other advantages of the Genetic Programming approach include its low demand for data, and its computational speed.