Market price of risk (${\lambda }_t=({\mu }_t-r_t)/{\sigma }_t$)

In a one-factor diffusion market, the market price of risk is the excess drift per unit spot volatility. It is the coefficient in the Brownian motion part of a local martingale deflator, $d{Y}_t=-Y_t(r_{t}dt+{\lambda }_{t}d{W}_t)$.

In a one-Brownian-factor arbitrage-free market, every traded derivative with nonzero diffusion exposure $s$ has the same excess-drift/exposure ratio. Otherwise holdings $s_2$ in the first and $-s_1$ in the second, financed in the bank account, cancel all diffusion risk while leaving a nonzero excess drift. At zero exposure, the correct statement is $m-rV=\theta s=0$, not division by zero. The short rate itself need not be a traded asset, so its physical drift does not alone fix this risk price.

A positive normalized continuous local martingale deflator requires a locally square-integrable Brownian diffusion coefficient. If the forced market price of risk is $-t^{-1/2}$, the coefficient has magnitude $Z_t/\sqrt{t}$. Since $Z_0>0$, continuity makes its squared integral diverge near zero. The bank account can nevertheless exist because $t^{-1/2}$ itself is integrable; finite integrated interest is weaker than square-integrability of the required risk compensation.