Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-39/2/a/solution

The square root is concave on , and is integrable since . For , the conditional Jensen inequality and the martingale property give
Taking conditional expectations with respect to and using the tower property of conditional expectation yields
Thus the maturity curve for a square-root stock claim is nonincreasing; it need not be strictly decreasing, as a constant stock gives equality. The inequality holds for every ordered pair of maturities. Under the usual right-continuous versions of the market processes, it gives the corresponding nonincreasing version of the maturity curve.

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