Option Pricing on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum Computers: A Quantum Neural Network Approach

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 20 Apr 2026] Option Pricing on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum Computers: A Quantum Neural Network Approach Sebastian Zając, Rafał Pracht In a global derivatives market with notional values in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, the accuracy and efficiency of pricing models are of fundamental importance, with direct implications for risk management, capital allocation, and regulatory compliance. In this work, we employ the Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) framework not as an end in itself, but as a controlled benchmark environment in which to rigorously assess the capabilities of quantum machine learning methods. We propose a fully quantum approach to option pricing based on Quantum Neural Networks (QNNs), and, to the best of our knowledge, present one of the first implementations of such a methodology on currently available quantum hardware. Specifically, we investigate whether QNNs, by exploiting the geometric structure of Hilbert space, can effectively approximate option pricing functions. Our implementation utilizes a compact 2-qubit QNN architecture evaluated across multiple state-of-the-art quantum processors, including IBM Fez, IQM Garnet, IonQ Forte, and Rigetti Ankaa-3. This cross-platform study reveals distinct hardware-dependent performance characteristics while demonstrating that accurate pricing approximations can be achieved consistently across different devices despite the constraints of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware. The results provide empirical evidence that QNN-based approaches constitute a viable framework for derivative pricing. While the analysis is conducted within the BSM setting, the broader significance lies in the potential extension of these methods to more realistic and computationally demanding models, including local volatility, stochastic volatility, and interest rate frameworks commonly used in practice. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Machine Learning (cs.LG) Cite as: arXiv:2604.19832 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2604.19832v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.19832 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Sebastian Zajac Dr [view email] [v1] Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:03:57 UTC (877 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: cs cs.LG References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)