Numerical solution of a PDE model for a ratchet-cap pricing with BGM interest rate dynamics

In this paper we present a new numerical method to price an interest rate derivative. The financial product consists of a particular ratchet cap contract which contains a set of ratchet caplets. For this purpose, we first pose the PDE pricing model for each ratchet caplet by means of Feynman-Kac theorem. The underlying interest rates are the forward LIBOR rates, the dynamics of which are assumed to follow the recently introduced BGM (LMM) market model. For the set of PDEs associated to the ratchet caplets pricing problems, we propose a second order Crank-Nicolson characteristics time discretization scheme combined with a finite element discretization in the interest rate variables. In order to illustrate the performance of the numerical methods, we present an academic test and a real example of a particular ratchet cap pricing. In the second case, a comparison between the results obtained by Monte Carlo simulation and the proposed method is presented. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.