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A modified explicit finite difference approach to the pricing of barrier options is developed. To obtain accurate prices, the grid is constructed such that the barrier is located in a suitable position relative to horizontal layers of nodes on the grid. This means that the barrier passes through a horizontal layer of nodes for continuous-time barrier options and is located halfway between two horizontal layers of nodes for discrete-time barrier options. Both single and double barrier cases can be accommodated. The option price at each node on the grid may be obtained by implementing a standard trinomial tree procedure. As the initial asset price will generally not lie exactly on the grid, the current value of the option is obtained using a quadratic interpolation of the option prices at the three adjacent nodes. The approach is shown to be robust and to provide accurate option prices and hedge ratios (such as delta, gamma, and …