In Vasicek model, we have the following relation to get Discount factors given the value of short rate: P(t,T)=eA(t,T)−B(t,T)rt
So, Discount factors are known as soon as we know the short rate. But then in some references like Glasserman (pg. 115) there is a whole subsection on "Joint Simulation [of short rate] with the Discount Factor" where he talks about simulating the pair (rt,∫t0r(u)du)
Piterbarg's book has something similar too. So my question is - why do we need to simulate Discount factor if we have an exact analytical result.
Answer
Although it's been a long time this question has been asked, I'd like to propose an answer in case someone was looking for the same thing.
First, I think there's a confusion between P(t,T) and DF(t,T). The former is the t−price of a contract paying 1 unit of currency at date T while the later is the (stochastic) discount factor at t for flows occuring at T. The two are linked through the relationship P(t,T)=EQ[DF(t,T)]
If rt is the instantaneous short rate, then DF(t,T) is given by DF(t,T)=e−∫Ttrsds
Now, the argument of Glasserman is about computing ∫Ttrsds. In theory, since one has rt up to maturity on a given path, this is just a matter of doing a Riemann sum. However, this may be very "noisy" because of discretization errors. It turns ou, as AXH mentionned, that (rt,∫Ttrsds) are jointly gaussian and can be simulated precisely.
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