medium · Quantitative Finance stochastic

For a standard Brownian motion W_t started at W_0 = 0, the Reflection Principle states that P(max_0 ≤ t ≤ T W_t ≥ a) = 2P(W_T ≥ a) for a > 0.

Why does the factor of 2 appear?

  1. The variance of the maximum of a Brownian motion equals exactly twice the variance of its terminal value at time T.
  2. The drift of the reflected process equals the exact negative of the original process's drift under this reflection map.
  3. Paths that hit a are equally likely to end above or below a due to the symmetry of Brownian motion after the first touch.
  4. It accounts for the 'In' and 'Out' components of a barrier option simultaneously, since In plus Out together replicate a vanilla.

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