The elapsed-time transition distribution of a driftless square-root diffusion starting at is the compound Poisson distributionwhere all variables on the right are independent and the empty sum is zero. Here the exponential distribution parameter is its rate. The Laplace transform of this sum iswhich is the Laplace transform of the driftless square-root diffusion; uniqueness of the Laplace transform proves the distributional identity. In particular, for , the exponential moment isFor this exponential moment is infinite when , since the event has positive probability and one exponential jump already has an infinite moment there. At the process remains zero and every such moment is one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 39 5 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The diffusion coefficient becomes , so the stock is a driftless square-root diffusion, with zero taken as an absorbing boundary. Substitution of into the pricing equation for a local volatility model givesEquating the constant and linear terms and imposing the terminal payoff givesThus and , and the price isThis is the exponential claim in a driftless square-root model. At the absorbing boundary its value is , matching the payoff at zero.
The payoff in this part is unbounded, unlike the payoff assumed in part (i), so it is useful to verify that the proposed price is a finite conditional expectation. For , starting from stock value , defineThen , , and . By Itô formula, is a bounded local martingale, hence a true martingale. It follows thatThis is also the Laplace transform of a sum of independent variables with exponential distribution of rate , where has Poisson distribution of mean and is independent of the summands: its transform is . Uniqueness of the Laplace transform therefore gives the compound Poisson transition law of a driftless square-root diffusion. The exponential distribution jump has exponential moment whenever . Summing over the Poisson distribution yieldsFor the remaining horizon , this is finite and, by the Markov property, is precisely . Thus the displayed process is indeed the risk-neutral pricing value and a true martingale. The replicating strategy from part (ii) has and .