Quantitative Finance under rough volatility.

Summary The aim of this thesis is to study various aspects of the rough behavior of the volatility observed universally on financial assets. This is done in six steps. In the first part, we investigate how rough volatility can naturally emerge from typical behav- iors of market participants. To do so, we build a microscopic price model based on Hawkes processes in which we encode the main features of the market microstructure. By studying the asymptotic behavior of the price on the long run, we obtain a rough version of the Heston model exhibiting rough volatility and leverage effect. Using this original link between Hawkes processes and the Heston framework, we compute in the second part of the thesis the characteristic function of the log-price in the rough Heston model. In the classical Heston model, the characteristic function is expressed in terms of a solution of a Riccati equation. We show that rough Heston models enjoy a similar formula, the Riccati equation being replaced by its fractional version. This formula enables us to overcome the non-Markovian nature of the model in order to deal with derivatives pricing. In the third part, we tackle the issue of managing derivatives risks under the rough Heston model. We establish explicit hedging strategies using as instruments the underlying asset and the forward variance curve. This is done by specifying the infinite-dimensional Markovian structure of the rough Heston model. Being able to price and hedge derivatives in the rough Heston model, we challenge the model to practice in the fourth part. More precisely, we show the excellent fit of the model to historical and implied volatilities. We also show that the model reproduces the Zumbach’s effect, that is a time reversal asymmetry which is observed empirically on financial data. While the Hawkes approximation enabled us to solve the pricing and hedging issues under the rough Heston model, this approach cannot be extended to an arbitrary rough volatility model. We study in the fifth part the behavior of the at-the-money implied volatility for small maturity under general stochastic volatility models. In the same spirit as the Hawkes approximation, we look in the sixth part of this thesis for a tractable Markovian approximation that holds for a general class of rough volatility models. By applying this approximation on the specific case of the rough Heston model, we derive a numerical scheme for solving fractional Riccati equations. Finally, we end this thesis by studying a problem unrelated to rough volatility. We consider an exchange looking for the best make-take fees system to attract liquidity in its platform. Using a principal-agent framework, we describe the best contract that the exchange should propose to the market maker and provide the optimal quotes displayed by the latter. We also argue that this policy leads to higher quality of liquidity and lower trading costs for investors.