Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 34 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , and specify the physical Black-Scholes model as , with constant and bank rate . The physical drift is needed for an expected utility calculation; a pricing model specified only under a risk-neutral measure does not determine the investor's preferences over risky positions. PutHere is the market price of risk, is the density of the risk-neutral measure , and is the state-price density. The Girsanov theorem makes a Brownian motion under .
For a dollar holding in the stock and consumption rate , the portfolio wealth equation isSince , integration by parts gives the useful deflated wealth equation with consumptionFor strategies with a true deflated gain martingale, terminal wealth and consumption obey the state-price budget constraintFor nonnegative wealth and consumption, the admissibility condition can instead give a budget inequality; increasing utilities use the full budget at an optimum. Conversely, suitable integrable payoff and consumption plans with this budget are financeable in the Brownian complete market. To construct the strategy, setBy the Brownian martingale representation theorem, write . The required dollar stock holding is ; substitution in the deflated gain equation verifies financing. Remaining wealth goes into the bank account. For square-integrable data the representation holds directly, and localization handles the customary integrable admissible data.
First take no consumption. For an increasing strictly concave differentiable utility function whose marginal derivative can be inverted, let . Choose so thatThis candidate is not merely a first-order guess. The concave supporting-tangent inequality gives, pointwise,Taking expectations and using the budget proves for every feasible competitor. Finance the optimizer by its risk-neutral pricing value , using the preceding representation to find the holdings.
For a merely concave differentiable utility function, the general formulation is to select from the maximizers of over its wealth domain, and choose the multiplier to satisfy the budget. If increasing utility is not assumed, the equality-budget multiplier may have either sign; the positive-multiplier inverse formula above is for increasing utility. Flat portions allow multiple maximizers; boundaries require one-sided inequalities rather than equality of marginal derivatives. Existence of a multiplier, integrability and an admissible maximizer must be checked. Concavity alone does not guarantee a well-posed problem: with unrestricted dollar positions, linear utility and permits unbounded expected terminal wealth. The explicit utilities below satisfy the needed conditions in their stated domains.
For exponential utility on , and . ThereforeThe budget is equivalently , since . Under , , giving . HenceMatching the Brownian coefficient of with gives the finite-horizon exponential-utility portfolioHold shares and invest in the bank account. This is a dollar amount, not a fixed wealth fraction. The Gaussian exponential formula also gives the optimal expected utilityThis calculation uses unrestricted wealth and an admissibility class permitting the displayed Gaussian terminal wealth, with integrable deflated gains and the relevant exponential moment. A nonnegative-wealth constraint would change the optimizer; no such constraint is imposed on this exponential-utility example.
For both terminal and running utility function, choose and a nonnegative adapted consumption rate to maximize subject to the combined budget. Pointwise maximization of and gives, for interior strictly concave cases,Apply the concave supporting-tangent inequality to and to at every time, then integrate and take expectations. The difference in objectives is at most times the difference in budget expenditures, which is nonpositive. This proves optimality, not just the marginal conditions. The financing value isThe question's consumption rate is denoted here to keep it distinct from interest-rate notation.
For logarithmic utility with , , assume and positive wealth and consumption. The marginal conditions and budget giveEach state-price-weighted payment is deterministic, so conditional valuation immediately gives . Put . Since the Itô formula gives , this value satisfiesComparison with the wealth equation verifies the complete finite-horizon logarithmic investment and consumption strategy:Thus the optimal share holding is , and the remaining value is in the bank account; borrowing or shorting is allowed if that value or the stock holding is negative. Terminal wealth is positive and consumption is positive throughout. Finally , so the optimal objective, if desired explicitly, isFinite-horizon lognormal moments ensure the budget and expected utilities are finite, completing the feasibility and optimality checks.