A conditional variance swap is a type of

variance swap A variance swap is an over-the-counter financial derivative that allows one to speculate on or hedge risks associated with the magnitude of movement, i.e. volatility, of some underlying product, like an exchange rate, interest rate, or stock inde ...

swap Swap or SWAP may refer to: Finance * Swap (finance), a derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows against another * Barter Science and technology * Swap (computer programming), exchanging two variables in the ...

derivative In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is t ...

product that allows investors to take exposure to volatility in the price of an underlying security but only while the underlying security is within a pre-specified price range. This instrument can be useful for hedging complex volatility exposures, making a bet on the volatility levels contained in the

skew Skew may refer to: In mathematics * Skew lines, neither parallel nor intersecting. * Skew normal distribution, a probability distribution * Skew field or division ring * Skew-Hermitian matrix * Skew lattice * Skew polygon, whose vertices do not l ...

of the underlying security's price, or buying/selling variance at more attractive levels given a view on the underlying security.Allen, Peter; Einchcomb, Stephen, and Granger, Nicolas. ''Conditional Variance Swaps: Product Note''. JPMorgan, 3 April 2006.

History

Regular

were introduced first, and became a popular instrument for hedging against the effect of volatility on option prices. Thus, the market for these securities became increasingly liquid, and pricing for these swaps became more efficient. However, investors noticed that to a certain extent the price levels for these variance swaps still deviated from the theoretical price that would have resulted from replicating the portfolio of options underlying the swaps using options pricing formulas such as the

Black–Scholes model The Black–Scholes or Black–Scholes–Merton model is a mathematical model for the dynamics of a financial market containing Derivative (finance), derivative investment instruments. From the parabolic partial differential equation in the model, ...

. This was partly because the construction of the

replicating portfolio In mathematical finance, a replicating portfolio for a given asset or series of cash flows is a portfolio of assets with the same properties (especially cash flows). This is meant in two distinct senses: static replication, where the portfolio has ...

includes a relatively large contribution from

out-of-the-money In finance, moneyness is the relative position of the current price (or future price) of an underlying Financial asset, asset (e.g., a stock) with respect to the strike price of a derivative (finance), derivative, most commonly a call option or a ...

options, which can often be illiquid and result in a pricing discrepancy in the overall swap. Conditional swaps mitigate this problem by limiting the hedge to strikes within an upper and lower level of the underlying security. Thus, the volatility exposure is limited to when the underlying security lies within this corridor. Another problem in replicating variance swaps is that dealers rarely use a large collection of options over a large range to hedge a variance swap due to transaction costs and the cost of managing a large number of options. A conditional variance swap is attractive as it is easier to hedge and better fits the payoff profile of hedges used in practice.

Notes

{{Derivatives market Derivatives (finance) Swaps (finance)