Recipes: Changing the pricing models for instrument types

  • Updated on Sep 17, 2026
  • Published on Aug 20, 2024
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A recipe has a pricing section that we strongly recommend you use to change the default pricing models. Note the following:

  • Most instrument types support several models with different capabilities and market data requirements. The default model is typically no longer the recommended model as models have developed over time.

  • You can conditionally select different pricing models for the same instrument type, so that (for example) European options are priced using BlackScholes and American options using BjerksundStensland1993.

  • You cannot change the pricing model for equities. Only SimpleStatic is available.

Note: The combination of instrument type and pricing model impacts the quantity and quality of market data required. Find out more about this.

For each instrument type whose pricing model you wish to change, specify a vendor model rule in the modelRules array of the pricing section of your recipe. Consider the following example, of three vendor model rules to change the default models for bonds, FxForwards and equity options (all others are left unchanged):

For information on all the fields and allowed values in a vendor model rule, examine the VendorModelRule schema. The following table summarises key fields:

Vendor model rule field

Status

Explanation

supplier

Mandatory

Defaults to Lusid to use built-in pricing models. Do not change this value unless you want to use a pricing model from a 3rd party vendor.

modelName

Mandatory

If supplier is Lusid, must be one of the models listed here.

instrumentType

Mandatory

If supplier is Lusid, must be one of the instrument types listed in the dropdown here.

addressKeyFilters

Optional

Specify if you want to conditionally selects different pricing models for the same instrument type.

modelOptions

Optional

Configure pricing models for certain instrument types. If instrumentType is:

  • FxForward, choose FxForwardModelOptions.

  • FundingLeg, choose FundingLegOptions.

  • EquityOption or EquitySwap, choose EquityModelOptions.

For all other instrument types, omit this field to use the default value of EmptyModelOptions.

Note: If you are valuing a fund of funds portfolio and want to ‘look through’ to value holdings in child portfolios, choose IndexModelOptions.

For more information on the option fields available, examine the API reference (expand the modelOptions section) and select the type from the dropdown:

Selecting different pricing models for the same instrument type

You can conditionally select pricing models based on:

  • Properties (custom, system or derived) in the Portfolio domain, for example Portfolio/People/Manager.

  • Properties (custom, system or derived) in the Instrument domain, for example Instrument/FX/DataProvider.

  • Features for OTC instruments, for example Instrument/Features/ExerciseType.

For example, you might want to specify that:

  • American FX option contracts are valued using the BjerksundStensland1993 pricing model.

  • European FX option contracts sourced from Bloomberg are valued using the BlackScholes pricing model.

  • European FX option contracts sourced from UBS are valued using the Discounting pricing model.

To do this, specify multiple vendor model rules for the same instrument type and distinguish them using the addressKeyFilters field:

  • The left field must reference the 3 stage key of either a property or a feature. In the example below, Instrument/FX/DataProvider is a property added to instruments of type FxOption to record the original data provider, while Instrument/Features/ExerciseType is a feature key referencing one of the available exercise types for FX option contracts in LUSID.

  • The operator field must either be eq or neq.

  • The right field must be a string value on which to match, with a resultValueType of ResultValueString. Note this means only properties with an underlying data type of String are currently supported.

Note: Vendor model rules are processed in the order they are specified in a recipe. The first matching rule found is used. Instruments that do not match any rules fall back to using the default pricing model for the instrument type, which is SimpleStatic for FX option contracts.

"pricing": {
"modelRules": [{
  "supplier": "Lusid",
  "instrumentType": "FxOption",
  "addressKeyFilters": [{
    "left": "Instrument/Features/ExerciseType",
    "operator": "eq",
    "right": {
      "value": "American",
      "resultValueType": "ResultValueString"
    }
  }],
  "modelName": "BjerksundStensland1993"
},
{
  "supplier": "Lusid",
  "instrumentType": "FxOption",
  "addressKeyFilters": [{
    "left": "Instrument/Features/ExerciseType",
    "operator": "eq",
    "right": {
      "value": "European",
      "resultValueType": "ResultValueString"
    }
  },
  {
    "left": "Instrument/FX/DataProvider",
    "operator": "eq",
    "right": {
      "value": "Bloomberg",
      "resultValueType": "ResultValueString"
    }
  }],
  "modelName": "BlackScholes"
},
{
  "supplier": "Lusid",
  "instrumentType": "FxOption",
  "addressKeyFilters": [{
    "left": "Instrument/Features/ExerciseType",
    "operator": "eq",
    "right": {
      "value": "European",
      "resultValueType": "ResultValueString"
    }
  },
  {
    "left": "Instrument/FX/DataProvider",
    "operator": "eq",
    "right": {
      "value": "UBS",
     "resultValueType": "ResultValueString"
    }
  }],
  "modelName": "Discounting"
}],
...

For a more detailed demonstration of conditional pricing model selection, examine this Jupyter Notebook.

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