Static hedging under maturity mismatch

Can shorter maturity European options be statically hedged with longer maturity plain vanilla options? This problem appears for example when analyzing options on forwards in relation to liquid options on the spot underlying. Under mild assumptions on the underlying security price process and on the option’s payoff function we show that approximate static hedges exist und we provide a recipe for constructing them. Examples illustrate the power of the hedge and its sensitivity to modelling assumptions. The results can be extended to formulating semi-static hedging strategies for discretely monitored path-dependent contingent claims. JEL Classification: C02, G13