Normalize the riskless financial asset to , , and write for the risky asset prices. Their discounted gain random vector is . A zero-cost portfolio holding in the risky assets and in the riskless asset has terminal value . Thus an arbitrage means
An equivalent martingale measure is a probability measure with the same null sets as , under which is integrable and . The discounted risky prices are then martingales over the single trading period.
If such exists, a nonnegative terminal gain has expectation zero under . A nonnegative random variable with zero expectation vanishes almost surely: on its expectation is at least , and the union of these events is . Equivalence transfers this conclusion to , excluding arbitrage.
For the converse we prove the needed positive-density separation proof of the one-period asset-pricing theorem. First make the gain integrable without changing its null sets. Define an equivalent probability measure by
Let and let be its orthogonal complement. Taking a finite basis of shows almost surely. If , the gain is zero and already gives the required measure. Otherwise consider the positive-weight expectation cone
Positive combinations of weights show that is a convex cone. It is open relative to . Indeed, for any admissible weight , perturb it to
These weights remain bounded and strictly positive, while
For every nonzero , is nonzero on an event of positive probability; otherwise . Consequently
The matrix is finite because . The kernel of on is zero, so it defines an invertible matrix on the finite-dimensional vector space . For any sufficiently small , every with is the image of a vector in the radius- ball, since . Hence the perturbations give a neighborhood of zero, proving relative openness of .
If , the hyperplane separation theorem gives a nonzero with for every . The separating constant can be taken to be zero because is a cone. Put and use the strictly positive weights . Taking the limit as yields , forcing . But , so . This is an arbitrage, a contradiction. Hence : some bounded strictly positive satisfies . Normalize it by . This gives an equivalent martingale measure with integrable gains, establishing the fundamental theorem of asset pricing here without any further existence theorem.
Now retain only the positive-probability states of the finite probability space. Let be the linear span of the discounted terminal asset payoffs; it contains the constant vector . A complete market means . An equivalent martingale measure is a vector of strictly positive state probabilities whose pairing with each asset payoff gives its initial price. By linearity it prices every attainable payoff. If , the indicator functions of individual states are attainable, so these prices determine every uniquely.
If is proper, choose . Since , . For sufficiently small , both and have strictly positive entries, sum to one, and give the same pairings with every asset payoff. They are distinct equivalent martingale measures. Therefore market completeness is equivalent to uniqueness of the equivalent martingale measure.
For an integrable finite-dimensional random vector , let . The displayed convex cone is open relative to . Given a bounded strictly positive , the perturbation , , changes its weighted expectation by , where
For , : otherwise almost surely. Thus is invertible on , and these perturbations give a neighborhood of every point of the cone. The hyperplane separation theorem consequently gives the alternative: either zero is a strictly positively weighted expectation, or a nonzero direction in has a nonnegative dot product with almost surely and a positive dot product with positive probability. To obtain the latter assertion, test the separating direction with and let .