8 Comments
 

What are you talking about WRT spread option? Are you talking about derivatives? calendar call-spreads and put-spreads, cash-less collars, etc.?

What is a correlation surface or skew? How does it correspond to leveraging investment dollars? What does one leg of your contracts being ATM have to do with a correlation surface?

 
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"PJM2ERCOT" I am talking about a commodity spread option. Power heat rate calls or oil crack spreads... In a commodity spread option in lieu of skewing vol of the underlying as you move away from ATM you use skew the term structure of correlation. What I don't know is if it's a few corrs or if its something more like an exponential function

http://help.cqg.com/cqgic/default.htm#!Documents/kirksapproximation.htm

There is a simple method based on the Gaussian copula but it does not take into account a correlation skew. A back of the envelope method is to use a call and a put of appropriate money ness and then use an analytical approximation with some correlation. That’s for pricing. Actually figuring out the correlation skew is not straight forward, you can check historical réalisation vs the spread but that will be very noisy.

I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 
"PJM2ERCOT" I am talking about a commodity spread option. Power heat rate calls or oil crack spreads... In a commodity spread option in lieu of skewing vol of the underlying as you move away from ATM you use skew the term structure of correlation. What I don't know is if it's a few corrs or if its something more like an exponential function

http://help.cqg.com/cqgic/default.htm#!Documents/kirksapproximation.htm

Sorry, did not get a chance to answer properly before. For pricing, there are a few copulas that are apparently able to price a correlation skew (however, you will lose the strike skew for the legs, but you can't have everything, right?). For figuring out a fair skew I suggest taking time series of the realized correlation and doing some sort of smart regression (like Lowess) against the direction of the spread. There are many ways you can skin this particular feline, however, if you are making a market you want to err on the conservative side.
I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

Yeah the regression makes sense. Where I get nervous is that regression isn’t “market”. What I’ll probably do is try to mimic the shape of the NYMEX Vol surface and compare that to th results of the regression. If it appears market in gas options is way more expensive (for vol skew) then I’ve done it wrong.

 
"PJM2ERCOT" Yeah the regression makes sense. Where I get nervous is that regression isn’t “market”. What I’ll probably do is try to mimic the shape of the NYMEX Vol surface and compare that to th results of the regression. If it appears market in gas options is way more expensive (for vol skew) then I’ve done it wrong.

I don’t know much about energy so it’s hard for me to judge, obviously (I’d love to pick your brain about it at some point). If correlation tends to pick up in a panic (think equities, for example) you should see correlation skew consistent with the underlying skews while if it’s something that should decorrelate in a panic, you should see that on a Lowess regression (but then you gonna have trouble getting a stable model)

I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

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