 Bounded-stopping-time characterization of a martingale

An adapted process with integrable coordinates is a martingale exactly when the displayed equality holds for every bounded stopping time. For the forward implication, expand $M_T-M_0={\sum }_{k=1}^N{1}_{\{T\ge k\}}(M_k-M_{k-1})$ and condition each term on ${\mathcal{F}}_{k-1}$. Conversely, for $A\in {\mathcal{F}}_n$ choose $T=n+1$ on $A$ and $T=n$ elsewhere. Subtract the equality for the constant stopping time $n$ to obtain $\mathbb{E}[1_A(M_{n+1}-M_n)]=0$, which is the defining conditional expectation identity.