English

Correlation breakdown, copula credit default models and arbitrage

Pricing of Securities 2009-09-01 v1 Risk Management

Abstract

The recent "correlation breakdown" in the modeling of credit default swaps, in which model correlations had to exceed 100% in order to reproduce market prices of supersenior tranches, is analyzed and argued to be a fundamental market inconsistency rather than an inadequacy of the specific model. As a consequence, markets under such conditions are exposed to the possibility of arbitrage. The general construction of arbitrage portfolios under specific conditions is presented.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0908.4299,
  title  = {Correlation breakdown, copula credit default models and arbitrage},
  author = {Rodanthy Tzani and Alexios P. Polychronakos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.4299},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

15 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:40:10.959Z