 Sigma-algebra of a finite-valued random vector

Let a random vector $V$ have a finite actual range of $q$ values. Its nonempty fibres partition the sample space, and every event in $\sigma (V)$ is a union of those fibres. Thus each fibre is an atom of a sigma-algebra and $\sigma (V)$ has exactly $2^q$ elements. This assertion concerns the actual range; additional values attained only on null sets must still be counted when working with an uncompleted sigma-algebra literally.

To verify the claim, the fibres belong to $\sigma (V)$ as preimages of singleton Borel sets. Their unions form a finite sigma-algebra making $V$ measurable, so minimality of the generated sigma-algebra gives the reverse inclusion. Distinct subcollections have distinct unions because the fibres are nonempty and disjoint.

Consequently a finite history of finite-valued observations generates a finite natural filtration at each fixed time. It may be strictly smaller than the filtration of its driving continuous observations: a single uniform random variable already generates infinitely many distinct events $\{U\le t\}$ with different probabilities.