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Marmy
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Question regarding Vega

May 2nd, 2012, 3:04 pm

Hi guys,I have a question regarding Vega. If you have vega on the y-axis and strike on the x-axis, you will get a vega curve which has the top ATM and then decreases on both sides, ITM and OTM.However, the vega curve will not be symmetric, but higher for higher strike. What is the reason for that?For a call option, my guess would have been that for the higher strike, the call option will be deep OTM, therefore volatility is particularly valuable compared to an ITM call option, as an OTM call option can't really lose that much more from an adverse move but a lot from a positive one.However, this point seems not to be valid as the vega for a put and call is the same, and at the higher strike, the Put will be deep ITM, so my argument seems not to work for the put.Thanks for your help!
 
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Alan
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Question regarding Vega

May 2nd, 2012, 3:27 pm

Being symmetric wouldn't make sense. Suppose S0=10. Consider K=0 and K=20, two points 'symmetrical' about K=S0.The first has 0 vega and the second doesn't.
 
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mxyzptlk
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Question regarding Vega

May 2nd, 2012, 5:06 pm

I would mention that in the B-S world with a flat volatility for all strikes if you use B-S call Delta as the coordinate then the Vega is symmetric with respect to Delta=0.5.