finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

, a default option, credit default swaption or credit default option is an option to buy protection (payer option) or sell protection (receiver option) as a

credit default swap A credit default swap (CDS) is a financial swap agreement that the seller of the CDS will compensate the buyer in the event of a debt default (by the debtor) or other credit event. That is, the seller of the CDS insures the buyer against som ...

on a specific reference credit with a specific maturity. The option is usually European, exercisable only at one date in the future at a specific

strike price In finance, the strike price (or exercise price) of an option is a fixed price at which the owner of the option can buy (in the case of a call), or sell (in the case of a put), the underlying security or commodity. The strike price may be set ...

defined as a coupon on the credit default swap. Credit default options on single credits are extinguished upon default without any cashflows, other than the upfront premium paid by the buyer of the option. Therefore, buying a payer option is not a good protection against an actual default, only against a rise in the credit spread. This may explain why such options are very illiquid. They may also feature quite high implied volatilities, as shown by Damiano Brigo (2005). However options on credit indices such as iTraxx and

CDX The Cdx gene family, also called caudal genes, are a group of genes found in many animal genomes. Cdx genes contain a homeobox DNA sequence and code for proteins that act as transcription factors. The gene after which the gene family is named (the ...

include any defaulted entities in the intrinsic value of the option when exercised. This is expressed at times by stating that the options offer "front-end protection". Proper inclusion of front end protection complicates index options valuation, see for example Claus M. Pedersen (2003), or Brigo and Morini (2008).

References

External links

* John C. Hull (economist), John Hull and Alan White
The Valuation of Credit Default Swap Options
Options (finance) Credit risk {{econ-stub

See also

References

External links