Pricing equation for a local volatility model

ID: pricing-equation-for-a-local-volatility-model

For a local volatility model with bank account , a nonnegative classical solution of
defines a possible price of a European contingent claim. Indeed, Itô formula gives , a local martingale. Thus the same equivalent local martingale measure works for the market augmented by this price. For an admissible trading strategy whose discounted wealth is bounded below, the discounted gains are a local martingale bounded below, hence a supermartingale by localization and the Fatou lemma. A zero-cost terminal gain that is nonnegative and strictly positive with positive probability would then contradict the supermartingale expectation inequality. This proves the absence of arbitrage for such strategies. If is bounded on the finite time interval, its discounted value is a bounded martingale and consequently . Nonnegativity alone guarantees the local martingale calculation, not this latter equality for every possible solution.

New to topics? Read the docs here!