Option pricing with the control variate technique beyond Monte Carlo simulation

Although mostly used alongside Monte Carlo simulation, the control-variate (CV) technique can be applied to other numerical algorithms in option pricing. This paper studies the conditions under which a numerical method (simulation-based or not) can benefit from the CV technique and what approximators can serve as CVs. We demonstrate the ideas with Carr and Madan's Fourier transform-based algorithm, convolution-based pricing algorithms, and classic binomial trees. Numerical results are provided to show that the CV-enhanced versions are more efficient than the original algorithms.