Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2006/ii/paper-2/28i/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ii Paper 2 28I a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An arbitrage is a portfolio with nonpositive initial cost, nonnegative terminal payoff almost surely and a positive payoff with positive probability, allowing unused initial cash to be invested in the riskless asset. Equivalently it is a zero-cost portfolio with those terminal properties. An equivalent martingale measure has the same null sets as the physical measure and satisfies for every traded asset, with appropriate integrability.
For an agent with differentiable increasing concave utility and an optimal portfolio, let be its terminal wealth. The first-order conditions for variations in risky holdings are . If and integrable, normalize it to the probability density . The first-order conditions make with an equivalent martingale measure. A small additional payoff then has marginal priceThis follows by setting the first variation of expected utility for buying a small claim at price equal to zero.
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