Analysing multi-level Monte Carlo for options with non-globally Lipschitz payoff

Giles (Oper. Res. 56:607–617, 2008) introduced a multi-level Monte Carlo method for approximating the expected value of a function of a stochastic differential equation solution. A key application is to compute the expected payoff of a financial option. This new method improves on the computational complexity of standard Monte Carlo. Giles analysed globally Lipschitz payoffs, but also found good performance in practice for non-globally Lipschitz cases. In this work, we show that the multi-level Monte Carlo method can be rigorously justified for non-globally Lipschitz payoffs. In particular, we consider digital, lookback and barrier options. This requires non-standard strong convergence analysis of the Euler–Maruyama method.