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How is the arbitrage-free price of a European put option calculated using state prices?

The arbitrage-free price of a European put option is calculated by first determining its state-contingent payoffs, decomposing this payoff vector into the Arrow-Debreu basis, and then taking the dot product of the payoff vector with the state price vector. This relies on the linearity of pricing in a finite-state market.

Conditions

  • The market is a one-period finite-state model.
  • The state price vector [ψ1,ψ2,… ][\psi_1, \psi_2, \dots] is known.
  • The option is European and expires at the end of the period.
  • The underlying asset's state-contingent payoffs and the strike price are known.

Reasoning, step by step

  1. Calculate the put payoff in each state using max⁡(K−Sstate,0)\max(K - S_{\text{state}}, 0).
  2. Write the put payoff as a column vector.
  3. Decompose the payoff vector into a linear combination of the Arrow-Debreu basis vectors.
  4. Multiply each state payoff by the corresponding state price.
  5. Sum these products to get the arbitrage-free price of the put.

Example

For a put with strike K=1.10K=1.10 on an asset paying 1.20 in state 1 and 0.90 in state 2, the payoff vector is [0,0.20]T[0, 0.20]^T. With state prices ψ1=1/3\psi_1=1/3 and ψ2=2/3\psi_2=2/3, the price is 0⋅(1/3)+0.20⋅(2/3)=0.4/3=2/150 \cdot (1/3) + 0.20 \cdot (2/3) = 0.4/3 = 2/15.

Common misconceptions

  • Assuming the put payoff is negative when the underlying asset is below the strike price; the payoff is always max⁡(K−S,0)\max(K-S, 0), which is non-negative.
  • Confusing the state prices ψ\psi with risk-neutral probabilities qq when pricing; the direct state-price weighting uses ψ\psi, while the risk-neutral approach uses qq and discounts the expected payoff.

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