StochVolModels (stochvolmodels)

stochvolmodels provides Fourier-transform pricing, Monte Carlo validation, and calibration of European options under stochastic-volatility models in Python.

It is a focused research and practitioner library, not a general derivatives platform: the stable workflows cover European vanilla and related variance analytics under Heston and the Karasinski-Sepp log-normal stochastic-volatility model.

Paper: Sepp, A. and Rakhmonov, P. (2023), Log-normal stochastic volatility model with quadratic drift, International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance, 26(8). See Citation for the full BibTeX list.

Documentation: stochvolmodels.readthedocs.io · offline quickstart · LogSV quickstart in Colab

Why stochvolmodels

stochvolmodels is the reference implementation of the Karasinski-Sepp log-normal beta stochastic volatility model, maintained by one of the model's originators, with the Heston model implemented alongside as a benchmark. The design goal is a single generic interface for a stochastic volatility model — a closed-form moment generating function for Fourier-transform pricing on one side, Monte Carlo dynamics on the other — so that analytic prices, simulated prices, and calibrated implied volatilities are directly comparable model to model.

The same analytics power the research: the papers module reproduces the computations and figures of five papers, from the quadratic-drift log-normal SV model (IJTAF) to cryptocurrency inverse options (Quantitative Finance), robust stochastic volatility modelling, impermanent-loss hedging in DeFi, and stochastic volatility for the factor HJM framework — see Supporting Illustrations.

Overview

The StochVol package provides:

1. Analytics for Black-Scholes and Normal vols
2. Interfaces and implementation for stochastic volatility models, including Karasinski-Sepp log-normal SV model and Heston SV model using analytical method with Fourier transform and Monte Carlo simulations
3. Visualization of model implied volatilities

For the analytic implementation of stochastic volatility models, the package provides interfaces for a generic volatility model with the following features.

1. Interface for analytical pricing of vanilla options using Fourier transform with closed-form solution for moment generating function
2. Interface for Monte-Carlo simulations of model dynamics

Illustrations of using package analytics for research work is provided in top-level package papers which contains computations and visualisations for several papers

When to use it — and when not

Use stochvolmodels for European vanilla pricing and implied-volatility analytics under stochastic volatility, for model calibration to option chains (a calibration example to Bitcoin options data is included), and for replicating the papers above.

It is not a general derivatives platform: no American or path-dependent payoffs, no local-volatility or term-structure models. For fast Black-Scholes-Merton and Bachelier array pricing without stochastic volatility, use vanilla-option-pricers; for strategy backtesting and reporting, use qis.

Installation

Install using

pip install stochvolmodels

Upgrade using

pip install --upgrade stochvolmodels

Clone using

git clone https://github.com/ArturSepp/StochVolModels.git

Core Dependencies

• python >= 3.10
• numba >= 0.60.0
• numpy >= 2.0
• scipy >= 1.12.0
• pandas >= 2.2.0
• matplotlib >= 3.8.0
• seaborn >= 0.13.0

Optional extras

Install an extra using

pip install stochvolmodels[research]

The library itself imports none of these: import stochvolmodels needs the core dependencies only.

API stability

The names listed by stochvolmodels.__all__ are the stable high-level API. Historical package-root names remain available lazily for compatibility, but names not in __all__ should be treated as advanced interfaces.

The rough-LogSV Monte Carlo and Factor HJM implementations are experimental research surfaces. Their characterized pricing paths are tested, but deep imports under stochvolmodels.pricers.rough_logsv and stochvolmodels.pricers.factor_hjm may evolve between minor releases. The legacy Gaussian_interval quadrature path requires unsupported orthopy and quadpy packages and now raises a precise ImportError; the incomplete rough-Heston kernel raises NotImplementedError until a characterized Mittag-Leffler backend is provided.

Table of contents

1. Model Interface
   1. Log-normal stochastic volatility model
   2. Heston stochastic volatility model
2. Running log-normal SV pricer
   1. Computing model prices and vols
   2. Running model calibration to sample Bitcoin options data
   3. Comparison of model prices vs MC
   4. Analysis and figures for the paper
3. Running Heston SV pricer
4. Supporting Illustrations for Public Papers

Running model calibration to sample Bitcoin options data

Implemented Stochastic Volatility models

The package provides interfaces for a generic volatility model with the following features.

1. Interface for analytical pricing of vanilla options using Fourier transform with closed-form solution for moment generating function
2. Interface for Monte-Carlo simulations of model dynamics
3. Interface for visualization of model implied volatilities

The model interface is in src/stochvolmodels/pricers/model_pricer.py.

Log-normal stochastic volatility model

The analytics for Karasinski-Sepp log-normal stochastic volatility model is based on the paper

Log-normal Stochastic Volatility Model with Quadratic Drift by Artur Sepp and Parviz Rakhmonov

The dynamics of the log-normal stochastic volatility model:

$$dS_{t}=r(t)S_{t}dt+\sigma_{t}S_{t}dW^{(0)}_{t}$$

$$d\sigma_{t}=\left(\kappa_{1} + \kappa_{2}\sigma_{t} \right)(\theta - \sigma_{t})dt+ \beta \sigma_{t}dW^{(0)}{t} + \varepsilon \sigma{t} dW^{(1)}_{t}$$

$$dI_{t}=\sigma^{2}_{t}dt$$

where $r(t)$ is the deterministic risk-free rate; $W^{(0)}_{t}$ and $W^{(1)}_t$ are uncorrelated Brownian motions, $\beta\in\mathbb{R}$ is the volatility beta which measures the sensitivity of the volatility to changes in the spot price, and $\varepsilon>0$ is the volatility of residual volatility. We denote by $\vartheta^{2}$, $\vartheta^{2}=\beta^{2}+\varepsilon^{2}$, the total instantaneous variance of the volatility process.

Implementation of Lognormal SV model is contained in

src/stochvolmodels/pricers/logsv_pricer.py

Heston stochastic volatility model

The dynamics of Heston stochastic volatility model:

$$dS_{t}=r(t)S_{t}dt+\sqrt{V_{t}}S_{t}dW^{(S)}_{t}$$

$$dV_{t}=\kappa (\theta - V_{t})dt+ \vartheta \sqrt{V_{t}}dW^{(V)}_{t}$$

where $W^{(S)}$ and $W^{(V)}$ are correlated Brownian motions with correlation parameter $\rho$

Implementation of Heston SV model is contained in

src/stochvolmodels/pricers/heston_pricer.py

Running log-normal SV pricer

Basic features are implemented in

examples/calibration/run_lognormal_sv_pricer.py

Loading cached SPX/VIX chains for experiments

Empirical CBOE chains remain owned and normalized by OptionChainAnalytics. Install the optional packages separately, set OCA_DATA_PATH to the ignored OCA data directory containing cboe_options/, and request only the observation window needed by the experiment:

pip install "stochvolmodels[research]" "option-chain-analytics[cboe]>=4.0.0"

import pandas as pd

from stochvolmodels.data.fetch_option_chain import load_cboe_option_chain

option_chain = load_cboe_option_chain(
    ticker='SPX',
    value_time=pd.Timestamp('2023-11-08 22:00:00+00:00'),
    days_map={'1w': 7, '1m': 21, '3m': 63},
    delta_bounds=(None, None),
)

The adapter reads OCA's ignored per-underlying Parquet cache and returns SVM's existing lightweight OptionChain; it does not copy the dataset or add provider metadata to the calibration object. See examples/calibration/load_cboe_option_chain.py for SPX and VIX cases.

Imports:

import numpy as np 
import stochvolmodels as sv
from stochvolmodels import LogSVPricer, LogSvParams, OptionChain

Computing model prices and vols

# instance of pricer
logsv_pricer = LogSVPricer()

# define model params    
params = LogSvParams(sigma0=1.0, theta=1.0, kappa1=5.0, kappa2=5.0, beta=0.2, volvol=2.0)

# 1. compute the price
model_price, vol = logsv_pricer.price_vanilla(params=params,
                                             ttm=0.25,
                                             forward=1.0,
                                             strike=1.0,
                                             optiontype='C')
print(f"price={model_price:0.4f}, implied vol={vol: 0.2%}")

# 2. prices for slices
model_prices, vols = logsv_pricer.price_slice(params=params,
                                             ttm=0.25,
                                             forward=1.0,
                                             strikes=np.array([0.9, 1.0, 1.1]),
                                             optiontypes=np.array(['P', 'C', 'C']))
print([f"{p:0.4f}, implied vol={v: 0.2%}" for p, v in zip(model_prices, vols)])

# 3. prices for option chain with uniform strikes
option_chain = OptionChain.get_uniform_chain(ttms=np.array([0.083, 0.25]),
                                            ids=np.array(['1m', '3m']),
                                            strikes=np.linspace(0.9, 1.1, 3))
model_prices, vols = logsv_pricer.compute_chain_prices_with_vols(option_chain=option_chain, params=params)
print(model_prices)
print(vols)

Running model calibration to sample Bitcoin options data

btc_option_chain = sv.get_btc_test_chain_data()
params0 = LogSvParams(sigma0=0.8, theta=1.0, kappa1=5.0, kappa2=None, beta=0.15, volvol=2.0)
btc_calibrated_params = logsv_pricer.calibrate_model_params_to_chain(option_chain=btc_option_chain,
                                                                    params0=params0,
                                                                    constraints_type=sv.ConstraintsType.INVERSE_MARTINGALE)
print(btc_calibrated_params)

logsv_pricer.plot_model_ivols_vs_bid_ask(option_chain=btc_option_chain,
                               params=btc_calibrated_params)

The full fitted-surface figure is generated by the paper workflow and is not committed as a build artifact.

Comparison of model prices vs MC

btc_option_chain = sv.get_btc_test_chain_data()
uniform_chain_data = OptionChain.to_uniform_strikes(obj=btc_option_chain, num_strikes=31)
btc_calibrated_params = LogSvParams(sigma0=0.8327, theta=1.0139, kappa1=4.8609, kappa2=4.7940, beta=0.1988, volvol=2.3694)
logsv_pricer.plot_comp_mma_inverse_options_with_mc(option_chain=uniform_chain_data,
                                                  params=btc_calibrated_params,
                                                  nb_path=400000)
                                           

The full analytic-versus-Monte-Carlo figure is generated by the paper workflow.

Analysis and figures for the paper

The paper figures and equation-mapped analysis live in

papers/logsv_model_with_quadratic_drift

Running Heston SV pricer

Examples are implemented here

examples/pricing/run_heston_sv_pricer.py
examples/pricing/run_heston.py

Content of run_heston.py

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from stochvolmodels import HestonPricer, HestonParams, OptionChain

# define parameters for bootstrap
params_dict = {'rho=0.0': HestonParams(v0=0.2**2, theta=0.2**2, kappa=4.0, volvol=0.75, rho=0.0),
               'rho=-0.4': HestonParams(v0=0.2**2, theta=0.2**2, kappa=4.0, volvol=0.75, rho=-0.4),
               'rho=-0.8': HestonParams(v0=0.2**2, theta=0.2**2, kappa=4.0, volvol=0.75, rho=-0.8)}

# get uniform slice
option_chain = OptionChain.get_uniform_chain(ttms=np.array([0.25]), ids=np.array(['3m']), strikes=np.linspace(0.8, 1.15, 20))
option_slice = option_chain.get_slice(id='3m')

# run pricer
pricer = HestonPricer()
pricer.plot_model_slices_in_params(option_slice=option_slice, params_dict=params_dict)

plt.show()

Supporting Illustrations for Public Papers

As illustrations of different analytics, this package includes module papers with codes for computations and visualisations featured in several papers for

1. "Log-normal Stochastic Volatility Model with Quadratic Drift" by Artur Sepp and Parviz Rakhmonov: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S0219024924500031

papers/logsv_model_with_quadratic_drift

2. "What is a robust stochastic volatility model" by Artur Sepp and Parviz Rakhmonov, SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4647027

papers/volatility_models

3. "Valuation and Hedging of Cryptocurrency Inverse Options" by Artur Sepp and Vladimir Lucic, SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4606748

papers/inverse_options

4. "Unified Approach for Hedging Impermanent Loss of Liquidity Provision" by Artur Sepp, Alexander Lipton and Vladimir Lucic, SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4887298

papers/il_hedging

5. "Stochastic Volatility for Factor Heath-Jarrow-Morton Framework" by Artur Sepp and Parviz Rakhmonov, Review of Derivatives Research, 2025, 28(3), article 12: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11147-025-09217-4 (preprint: http://ssrn.com/abstract=4646925)

papers/sv_for_factor_hjm

6. "Jump risk premia in the presence of clustered jumps" by Francis Liu, Natalie Packham and Artur Sepp, SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4735365. The repository folder contains related development code and is not an exact replication package.

papers/jump_risk_premia_clustered_jumps

Project Structure

StochVolModels/
├── src/
│   └── stochvolmodels/
│       ├── data/                 # option-chain containers and sample data
│       ├── pricers/              # analytic, transform, and Monte Carlo models
│       ├── utils/                # quadrature, payoff, plotting, and rate helpers
│       └── tests/                # shipped pytest suite and regression data
├── examples/                     # repository-only runnable workflows
│   ├── getting_started/
│   ├── pricing/
│   ├── calibration/
│   ├── monte_carlo/
│   └── advanced/
├── papers/                       # paper replications and labelled development code
├── docs/                         # documentation sources and figures
└── README.md

Ecosystem

This package is part of an open-source Python stack for quantitative finance — full catalogue at github.com/ArturSepp:

Dependency links within the stack: optimalportfolios builds on qis and factorlasso; trendfollowing builds on qis.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.txt file for details.

Citation

If you use this package in your research, please cite the relevant papers:

@misc{sepp2024stochvolmodels,
  title={StochVolModels: Python Implementation of Stochastic Volatility Models},
  author={Sepp, Artur},
  year={2024},
  howpublished={\url{https://github.com/ArturSepp/StochVolModels}},
  note={Python package for pricing analytics and Monte Carlo simulations}
}

@article{sepprakhmonov2023,
title={Log-normal stochastic volatility model with quadratic drift},
author={Sepp, Artur and Rakhmonov, Parviz},
journal={International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance},
volume={26},
number={8},
year={2023},
url={https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/epdf/10.1142/S0219024924500031}
}

@article{sepprakhmonov2023b,
title={What is a robust stochastic volatility model},
author={Sepp, Artur and Rakhmonov, Parviz},
year={2023},
note={Working paper},
url={http://ssrn.com/abstract=4647027}
}

@article{lucicsepp2024,
title={Valuation and hedging of cryptocurrency inverse options},
author={Lucic, Vladimir and Sepp, Artur},
journal={Quantitative Finance},
volume={24},
number={7},
pages={851--869},
year={2024},
url={https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14697688.2024.2364804}
}

@article{sepprakhmonov2025,
title={Stochastic volatility for factor Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework},
author={Sepp, Artur and Rakhmonov, Parviz},
volume={28},
number={3},
pages={12},
year={2025},
journal={Review of Derivatives Research},
doi={10.1007/s11147-025-09217-4},
note={Preprint: http://ssrn.com/abstract=4646925}
}

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to co-authors and collaborators:

• Parviz Rakhmonov
• Vladimir Lucic
• Alexander Lipton

For additional research and advanced analytics, see the companion modules and papers included in this package.