Martingale expansion for stochastic volatility

Abstract: The martingale expansion provides a refined approximation to the marginal distributions of martingales beyond the normal approximation implied by the martingale central limit theorem. We develop a martingale expansion framework specifically suited to continuous stochastic volatility models. Our approach accommodates both small volatility-of-volatility and fast mean-reversion models, yielding first-order perturbation expansions under essentially minimal conditions.