Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-martingales-and-financial-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2007/b/5/a/solution

Let be the number of stock units and the number of bank-account units, with predictable holdings satisfying the integrability conditions for the price integrals. The portfolio value is . It is self-financing if
Thus changes in value come only from gains on the assets held. Rebalancing transfers money between the stock and bank account; it does not inject or withdraw cash. The definition is an identity of stochastic integrals and automatically includes the bookkeeping needed when holdings themselves vary randomly.

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