How do you convert a state price vector into risk-neutral probabilities?
Conditions
- The state prices are already determined.
- is the known per-period risk-free interest rate.
- The market is a one-period finite-state model.
Reasoning, step by step
- Identify the state price vector .
- Determine the per-period risk-free interest rate .
- Calculate the gross risk-free factor .
- Multiply each state price by to obtain the risk-neutral probability .
- Verify that the sum of all equals 1.
Example
In a two-state market with state prices and , and a risk-free rate of , the gross factor is . The risk-neutral probabilities are and .
Common misconceptions
- Assuming that state prices and risk-neutral probabilities are always numerically the same; they only coincide when the risk-free rate is zero ().
- Forgetting to multiply by the gross factor and instead dividing by it, which would yield incorrect probabilities.
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