 Solution

A simple predictable process can be writtenwhere each ${\xi }_j$ is bounded and ${\mathcal{F}}_{t_j}$-measurable. Define its integral to start at zero:Refining the partition leaves this sum unchanged. Every summand is a martingale, by conditioning its future increment on the information at $t_j$. Bounded coefficients and the $L^2$ bound on $M$ make the integral an L2-bounded continuous martingale. Its terminal value is the same sum with $M_{\infty }$ substituted at any infinite endpoint; $L^2$ martingale convergence supplies this limit.

We need the conditional square identity, rather than assuming independent increments. The Doob L2 maximal inequality gives $\mathbb{E}{\sup }_t|M_t{|}^2<\infty$. Localize the square identity for $M^2-[M]$ at level and bracket stopping times. The stopped identity and this maximal bound give $\mathbb{E}[M{]}_{\infty }<\infty$ by monotone convergence. Nowis integrable, so localization passes to conditional expectations and $M^2-[M]$ is a uniformly integrable martingale. Expanding a squared increment and using $\mathbb{E}(M_t\mid {\mathcal{F}}_s)=M_s$ provesThe infinite endpoint follows from $L^2$ convergence and integrability of the bracket. The initial value $M_0$ need not be zero: the integral itself is zero-starting.

In the square of the terminal integral, all cross terms vanish. For $j<k$, the $j$th increment and both coefficients in its cross term are measurable at $t_k$, whereas the conditional mean of the $k$th increment there is zero. For the diagonal terms, the preceding conditional identity can be multiplied by the bounded ${\xi }_j^2$. ThereforeThis proves the Itô isometry for these simple integrands. Ordered stopping-time intervals also work, replacing the conditional identity by optional stopping theorem, but deterministic intervals suffice for the approximation requested here.

For that approximation, put $\mu (A)=\mathbb{E}{\int }_0^1{1}_A(\omega ,s)ds$ on the predictable sigma-algebra. This is a finite measure. That sigma-algebra is generated, apart from the zero-time slice of measure zero, by rectangles $A\times (s,t]$ with $A\in {\mathcal{F}}_s$. The indicator of every such rectangle is a bounded simple predictable process.

Here is a density proof. Let $V$ be the closed linear span of these indicators in $L^2(\mu )$, and let $\mathcal{D}$ contain the predictable sets whose indicators belong to $V$. The whole space belongs to $\mathcal{D}$; complements stay in $\mathcal{D}$; and disjoint countable unions do also, because their finite partial indicator sums converge in $L^2$ under the finite measure. Thus $\mathcal{D}$ is a Dynkin system containing the generating rectangle pi-system. The Pi-lambda theorem makes it the entire predictable sigma-algebra. Bounded predictable simple functions therefore belong to $V$. Truncating any $L^2(\mu )$ function and then approximating its truncated range by finitely many levels shows that every such function belongs to $V$. A finite sum of rectangle indicators can be rewritten on one common deterministic time partition, with the coefficient on each interval measurable at its left endpoint; it is exactly an allowed simple process.

Consequently choose $H^n$ of this form with $\Vert H^n-H{\Vert }_{L^2(\mu )}<1/n$. This provesIt is density of simple predictable processes for finite measures, with a proof of the actual approximation step.

Finally apply the preceding isometry to $M_t=B_{t\wedge 1}$, whose bracket is $t\wedge 1$. The elementary integrals $I_n={\int }_0^1{H}_s^{n}d{B}_s$ satisfyDefine the Itô integral as the $L^2$ limit of these elementary integrals. The same identity shows independence of the approximating sequence, linearity, mean zero, and $\mathbb{E}({\int }_0^1{H}_{s}d{B}_s{)}^2=\mathbb{E}{\int }_0^1{H}_s^{2}ds$. Applying the Doob inequality to the difference processes also gives uniform-in-time $L^2$ convergence on $[0,1]$, with a continuous martingale version of the integral.