Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 39 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The spot interest rate is known at . The state-price density price of its floating payment is, by the law of total expectation,Here if . All these terms are integrable: is bounded in absolute value by , whose expectation is finite from the one-step pricing relation. Subtracting the fixed payment givesThis also follows directly from a floating-rate payment bond replication. At time zero buy one unit of the bond maturing at and short units of the bond maturing at . Their initial cost is the displayed . Hold them until . The first bond then pays one; spend that one to buy units of the maturity- bond, leaving the earlier short position in place. This rebalance is self-financing. At maturity the net payment isFor , the first unit is time-zero cash, and the same immediate rebalance gives the deterministic payoff. Thus the replication establishes the zero no-arbitrage price without requiring completeness of other claims.