Markov-Functional Models with Local Drift

Abstract

We introduce a Markov-functional approach to construct local volatility models that are calibrated to a discrete set of marginal distributions. The method is inspired by and extends the volatility interpolation of Bass (1983) and Conze and Henry-Labord\`ere (2022). The method is illustrated with efficient numerical algorithms in the cases where the constructed local volatility functions are: (1) time-homogeneous between or (2) continuous across, the successive maturities. The step-wise time-homogeneous construction produces a parsimonious representation of the local volatility term structure.