Option pricing of weather derivatives based on a stochastic daily rainfall model with Analogue Year component

In this study, we analyzed option pricing of rainfall derivatives based on stochastic daily rainfall model. We used Markov Chain Analogue Year model (MCAY) in order to describe occurrence process of daily rainfall. We have included the Analogue Year (AY) component in the Markov Chain (MC), which is a new component incorporated in this study and pricing rainfall derivatives. The inclusion of AY in the MC, provides excellent description of the occurrence process of daily rainfall. The amount of daily rainfall on wet days is obtained using Mixed Exponential distribution because it has the advantage of a better representation of extreme events. Combining the occurrence and amount model, we obtained Markov Chain Analogue Year Mixed Exponential model (MCAYMEM). Daily rainfall data from 2005 to 2017 were taken from Ethiopia National Meteorology Agency (ENMA) in order to assess the model performance. Based on the results of the daily rainfall models, we calculated an option price for different months. The price calculated using MCAYMEM gave an excellent result compared to the price calculated using MCMEM. This accuracy is mainly because of AY component included in the MC in the modeling of occurrence process.