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In the zero-interest local volatility model $d{S}_t=\sqrt{S_t}d{W}_t^Q$, the risk-neutral pricing value of the European contingent claim $e^{v{S}_T}$, for $v>0$ and $v(T-t)<2$, isThe compound Poisson transition law of a driftless square-root diffusion proves finiteness and this conditional-expectation formula. Alternatively, substituting $V(t,S)=e^{a(t)S+b(t)}$ into the pricing equation for a local volatility model gives $a^{\prime }+a^2/2=0$ and $b^{\prime }=0$, with terminal values $a(T)=v,b(T)=0$. Hence $a(t)=v/[1-v(T-t)/2]$ and $b(t)=0$. The conditional-expectation calculation verifies that this formal solution is the price of the unbounded claim. The delta hedge holds $a(t)V$ stocks and $(1-a(t)S_t)V/B_t$ bank units.

A local volatility model uses a deterministic function of current time and spot as its diffusion volatility, $\sigma (t,S_t)$. It can reproduce a surface of European call option prices through the Dupire equation.

For a local volatility model $d{S}_t=S_t(rdt+\sigma (S_t)d{W}_t^Q)$ with bank account $B_t=B_0{e}^{rt}$, a nonnegative classical solution $V$ ofdefines a possible price of a European contingent claim. Indeed, Itô formula gives $d(V(t,S_t)/B_t)=B_t^{-1}\sigma (S_t)S_t{V}_S(t,S_t)d{W}_t^Q$, a local martingale. Thus the same equivalent local martingale measure works for the market augmented by this price. For an admissible trading strategy whose discounted wealth is bounded below, the discounted gains are a local martingale bounded below, hence a supermartingale by localization and the Fatou lemma. A zero-cost terminal gain that is nonnegative and strictly positive with positive probability would then contradict the supermartingale expectation inequality. This proves the absence of arbitrage for such strategies. If $V$ is bounded on the finite time interval, its discounted value is a bounded martingale and consequently $V(t,S_t)=B_t{\mathbb{E}}_Q[g(S_T)/B_T\mid {\mathcal{F}}_t]$. Nonnegativity alone guarantees the local martingale calculation, not this latter equality for every possible solution.