April 20th, 2005, 12:44 pm
Often in pricing exotics, one calibrates the model not too the ATM swaptions/caplets but to swaptions and caplets which are struck at strikes that best represent the exotic ... There are a few different methods of selecting these swaptions/caplets depending on the exotic. Eg: selecting the fixed rate (strike) of the swaption so that the ration of the swaption's fixed leg to floating leg (where the legs inclcude the notional at the end date) matches the ratio for the exotic selecting the strike so that the same parallel shift of a yield curve which brings the exotic option to it's ATM point also brings the swaption to its ATM point selecting the swaption whose PV01's to parallel shifts and tilts of the yield curve matches the exotic'sIf this is done, then bumping the vol of each swaption/caplet gives the exotic's vega risk at a particular strikes, and these vega risks can be handled via SABR in the same manner as being long or short the swaption itself. (Alternatively, these swaptions/caplets often provide very stable hedges for the exotic, with less need for frequent re-balancing).If one cannot autocalibrate in this way, then one can use an external adjusters to move the risk to the proper strikes.I have a couple (pretty rough) drafts about this.