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A martingale with respect to a filtration $({\mathcal{F}}_n)$ is an adapted process: $X_n$ is ${\mathcal{F}}_n$-measurable for every $n$. It must satisfy $\mathbb{E}|X_n|<\infty$ andBy the tower property this is equivalent to $\mathbb{E}[X_m\mid {\mathcal{F}}_n]=X_n$ for all $m\ge n$. Integrability and adaptation are part of the definition, not consequences of writing a formal conditional-mean identity.

Inductively, $X_0,\dots ,X_n$ are functions of ${\Delta }_0,\dots ,{\Delta }_n$, so ${\mathcal{F}}_n\subseteq \sigma ({\Delta }_0,\dots ,{\Delta }_n)$. The average $f_n(X_0,\dots ,X_n)$ is therefore ${\mathcal{F}}_n$-measurable and independent of ${\Delta }_{n+1}$. If $X_0,\dots ,X_n$ are integrable, thenStarting with $X_0={\Delta }_0$, induction proves integrability of every $X_n$. Adaptation holds by definition of the natural filtration. Independence and zero mean now legitimately giveHence the process is a martingale. Only first moments are used; no second-moment or boundedness assumption on the increments is needed.

The bounded-time optional stopping theorem states that if $X$ is an integrable discrete-time martingale and $\tau$ is a stopping time bounded by a deterministic integer $N$, then $X_{\tau }$ is integrable and $\mathbb{E}{X}_{\tau }=\mathbb{E}{X}_0$. Indeed $|X_{\tau }|\le {\sum }_{j=0}^N|X_j|$ proves integrability, andThe event $\{\tau \ge j\}=\{\tau >j-1\}$ belongs to ${\mathcal{F}}_{j-1}$. Conditional expectation of each summand given ${\mathcal{F}}_{j-1}$ is zero, soMore generally, if $\sigma \le \tau \le N$ are stopping times, $\mathbb{E}[X_{\tau }\mid {\mathcal{F}}_{\sigma }]=X_{\sigma }$. To prove this, test against $A\in {\mathcal{F}}_{\sigma }$ and apply the same argument to $1_A{1}_{\{\sigma <j\le \tau \}}(X_j-X_{j-1})$; its coefficient is ${\mathcal{F}}_{j-1}$-measurable. Boundedness of the stopping times makes the sums finite, so no limiting optional-stopping hypothesis is being omitted.

For a finite-state, finite-horizon discrete-time frictionless market with a strictly positive numéraire, the fundamental theorem of asset pricing states no arbitrage if and only if there exists an equivalent martingale measure under which all discounted asset prices are martingales. Equivalence means the same null events as the physical measure. In this setting market completeness is equivalent to uniqueness of the equivalent martingale measure, and a replicable payoff $H$ has price $S_t^0{\mathbb{E}}_Q[H/S_T^0\mid {\mathcal{F}}_t]$. Without finite-state hypotheses, stronger integrability and closure conditions are needed; this is the standard multi-period course version.

Use discrete dates $j=0,\dots ,N$, a bank account $B_j=R^j$ with $R=1+r>0$, and a positive stock with each one-period gross return either $u$ or $d$, where $0<d<u$. On the natural tree assume both moves have positive physical probability. The Cox--Ross--Rubinstein model is arbitrage-free precisely whenOtherwise a stock/bank position gives nonnegative profit in both states and positive profit in at least one. Under the condition, the unique equivalent martingale measure has independent upward moves with conditional probabilityIndeed $qu+(1-q)d=R$, making the discounted stock a martingale. Both branches have positive probability under this measure, ensuring equivalence. The uniqueness/completeness claim is for the stock-generated binomial tree; an enlarged filtration carrying additional untraded risk would change that claim.

For a discrete-time martingale $(M_n)$ and real $a<b$, let $U_N[a,b]$ be the upcrossing count: buy on the first observation at or below $a$, sell on the next observation at or above $b$, and repeat up to time $N$, counting only completed pairs. Writing $z^{-}=max(-z,0)$, the Doob upcrossing inequality isThis convention permits the first purchase at time zero. Equivalently, the right side is $\mathbb{E}(M_N-a{)}^{+}-\mathbb{E}(M_0-a)$, because the martingale has constant expected value.

For completeness, let $H_k\in \{0,1\}$ indicate whether the trading rule holds one unit during $(k-1,k]$. This is a predictable process, so the martingale transform $G_N={\sum }_{k=1}^N{H}_k(M_k-M_{k-1})$ has zero expected value. Every completed trade gains at least $b-a$, and an unfinished trade loses at most $(M_N-a{)}^{-}$. Thus $G_N\ge (b-a)U_N[a,b]-(M_N-a{)}^{-}$, giving the inequality.

The Martingale convergence theorem says that if a discrete-time martingale $(M_n)$ satisfies $C={\sup }_n\mathbb{E}|M_n|<\infty$, then there is an integrable random variable $M_{\infty }$ such thatThe hypothesis does not by itself ensure convergence in L1.

For each pair of rational numbers $a<b$, the Doob upcrossing inequality gives $\mathbb{E}{U}_N[a,b]\le (C+|a|)/(b-a)$. The monotone convergence theorem therefore gives a finite expected value for $U_{\infty }[a,b]={\lim }_N{U}_N[a,b]$, so this upcrossing count is finite almost surely. There are only countably many such pairs, hence all their upcrossing counts are simultaneously finite outside one event of probability zero.

If ${\mathrm{liminf}}_n{M}_n<{\mathrm{limsup}}_n{M}_n$, the density of the rational numbers supplies $a<b$ strictly between them, forcing infinitely many upcrossings. Consequently $M_n$ has a limit in the extended real numbers almost surely. By the Fatou lemma,A limit of either $+\infty$ or $-\infty$ would make this lower limit infinite, so the limit is finite almost surely, and the same inequality proves its integrability.

Set $M_n={\sum }_{j=0}^n{X}_j$ and ${\mathcal{F}}_n=\sigma (X_0,\dots ,X_n)$. The independence and zero expected values give $\mathbb{E}[M_{n+1}\mid {\mathcal{F}}_n]=M_n$, so $(M_n)$ is a martingale. The variance additivity for independent random variables givesThe Cauchy-Schwarz inequality implies ${\sup }_n\mathbb{E}|M_n|\le \sqrt{V}$. Applying the Martingale convergence theorem from (b),In fact the L2 martingale convergence theorem also gives convergence in L2. Independently, for $n>m$ the same variance additivity for independent random variables yields $\mathbb{E}|M_n-M_m{|}^2={\sum }_{j=m+1}^n\mathbb{E}[X_j^2]\to 0$, confirming that the partial sums form a Cauchy sequence in $L^2$.

Let ${\xi }_1,{\xi }_2,\dots$ be independent and identically distributed random variables with the fair Bernoulli distribution, and putRelative to ${\mathcal{F}}_n=\sigma ({\xi }_1,\dots ,{\xi }_n)$, this fair-coin doubling martingale satisfies $\mathbb{E}[M_{n+1}\mid {\mathcal{F}}_n]=M_n$: while alive it doubles with probability $1/2$ and becomes zero otherwise. Its expected value is $\mathbb{E}{M}_n=2^n{2}^{-n}=1$.

The probability of an infinite run of ones is ${\lim }_n{2}^{-n}=0$, so $M_n$ is eventually zero almost surely. However,Thus the martingale lacks convergence in L1 to its limit from almost sure convergence. Nor can it have convergence in L1 to any other limit: convergence in L1 implies convergence in probability, whose limit is unique up to almost sure equality.

A sequence of integrable random variables $(X_n)$ has uniform integrability exactly whenThe uniformly integrable martingale convergence theorem states that a uniformly integrable discrete-time martingale $(M_n)$ has an integrable random variable $M_{\infty }$ withIndeed, uniform integrability implies ${\sup }_n\mathbb{E}|M_n|<\infty$, so the Martingale convergence theorem gives almost sure convergence. The combination of uniform integrability and almost sure convergence gives convergence in L1. For $m\ge n$, the martingale identity $\mathbb{E}[M_m\mid {\mathcal{F}}_n]=M_n$ passes to the limit by the L1 contraction of conditional expectation.

Conversely, uniform integrability of conditional expectations shows that a martingale of the form $M_n=\mathbb{E}[Y\mid {\mathcal{F}}_n]$ for one integrable random variable $Y$ is uniformly integrable.

The original PDF has $\mathbb{E}|X_T|<\infty$ and $\mathbb{E}[|X_n|1_{\{T>n\}}]\to 0$. The TeX transcription drops the expected value and absolute value in the first condition, and the absolute value in the second. The proof uses the PDF's conditions.

Because the stopping time $T$ is finite almost surely, $X_{n\wedge T}\to X_T$ almost surely. More strongly,The first term tends to zero by hypothesis; the second does so by the dominated convergence theorem. Thus there is convergence in L1.

Here is the needed L1 convergence implies uniform integrability argument. For any integrable random variables $Z,Y$ and $K>0$, splitting according to $|Y|>K/2$ givesTake $Z=X_{n\wedge T}$ and $Y=X_T$. For large $n$, the first term is uniformly small by convergence in L1, and the second is small for large $K$ by integrability. The finitely many remaining $n$ are handled individually by integrability. Hence the stopped process is uniformly integrable. This proves the stopped-martingale uniform integrability criterion; the martingale assumption is not needed for this particular implication.

For deterministic step functions, define directly from Brownian motion incrementswith $s_0$ the left endpoint of the first interval and $f=0$ outside the listed intervals. The printed endpoint list omits $s_0$; the intended convention is $0\le s_0<s_1<\cdots <s_n$, usually $s_0=0$.

Given finitely many observation times, refine the deterministic partition of an interval to include all observation times and all $s_i$. Every $Z_{t_j}$ is a linear combination of the same finite family of independent centered normal Brownian motion increments. Thus every linear combination of $(Z_{t_1},\dots ,Z_{t_m})$ is normal, including possibly a degenerate constant: $Z$ is a Gaussian process. By independence, only increments in the common interval $[0,s\wedge t]$ contribute to the covariance, givingThe same calculation for two step functions $f,g$ proves, rather than assumes, the Itô isometryFor $f\in L^2({\mathbb{R}}_{+})$, choose deterministic step functions $f_n\to f$ in the L2 space. This identity makes $Z_t(f_n)$ a Cauchy sequence in the L2 space; the Riesz-Fischer theorem defines $Z_t(f)$ by mean-square convergence, independently of the approximation. The covariance formula passes to the limit by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. For finitely many times and coefficients $a_j$, the characteristic functions converge toso the extension remains a Gaussian process.

For completeness, the construction has a continuous version. Each approximating $Z(f_n)$ is a martingale, directly by the centered independent increments of Brownian motion; the Doob L2 maximal inequality givesTo prove the inequality used here without assuming Itô integral properties, a continuous martingale $N$ satisfies $\lambda \mathbb{P}(N_T^{\ast }\ge \lambda )\le \mathbb{E}(|N_T|1_{\{N_T^{\ast }\ge \lambda \}})$, by conditioning at the first crossing on finite deterministic grids and then using continuity; integrating in $\lambda$ and using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality yields $\Vert N_T^{\ast }{\Vert }_2\le 2\Vert N_T{\Vert }_2$. A sufficiently fast subsequence therefore converges uniformly almost surely on every compact time interval, giving the continuous version of the stochastic integral.

The Itô formula applied to $F(t,x)=e^{t/2}\cos x$ gives exact cancellation of the drift:On every finite interval $[0,T]$, the Itô integral is square-integrable since $\mathbb{E}{\int }_0^T{e}^s{\sin }^2{B}_{s}ds\le e^T-1$. Therefore $e^{t/2}\cos B_t$ is a true martingale, and hence a local martingale.

For the other stochastic process, $d(B_t-t^2)=d{B}_t-2tdt$. If $B_t-t^2$ were a local martingale, its difference with $B$ would make the continuous finite-variation process $-t^2$ a local martingale, contradicting the fact that a continuous finite-variation local martingale is constant. Also $\mathbb{E}(B_t-t^2)=-t^2$ is not constant. Thus $B_t-t^2$ is neither a local martingale nor a martingale.

On the right-hand side, ${\mathbb{E}}_x$ means that the reference Brownian motion starts at $B_0=x$; on the left it means the stochastic differential equation starts at $X_0=x$. Since $h$ is smooth and compactly supported, $h^{\prime }$ is bounded and globally Lipschitz continuous. Define the stochastic exponentialThe Novikov condition holds on every finite horizon $T$, because $\mathbb{E}\exp (\frac{1}{2}{\int }_0^T{h}^{\prime }(B_s{)}^{2}ds)\le \exp (T\Vert h^{\prime }{\Vert }_{\infty }^2/2)$. Thus $D$ is a true martingale. Under $d\mathbb{Q}=D_{T}d\mathbb{P}$, the Girsanov theorem makes ${\hat{B}}_t=B_t-x-{\int }_0^t{h}^{\prime }(B_s)ds$ a standard Brownian motion for $t\le T$. Consequently $B$ under $\mathbb{Q}$ solves the prescribed stochastic differential equation; the existence and pathwise uniqueness theorem for a stochastic differential equation identifies its law with that of $X$.

The Itô formula gives ${\int }_0^t{h}^{\prime }(B_s)d{B}_s=h(B_t)-h(x)-\frac{1}{2}{\int }_0^t{h}^{\prime \prime }(B_s)ds$. Hence, for any bounded measurable $f$,The finite-horizon argument applies separately to every $t\ge 0$.

Let $U_t=(1,0,0)+(B_t^1,B_t^2,B_t^3)$, with three independent standard Brownian motions, and set $R_t=|U_t|$ and $M_t=R_t^{-1}$. The radial stochastic process $R$ is a three-dimensional Bessel process, which never hits zero by the Hitting-zero classification for a Bessel process. In three dimensions $u\mapsto |u{|}^{-1}$ is a harmonic function away from zero: direct differentiation gives $\Delta (|u{|}^{-1})=0$.

For the stopping times $T_n=\inf \{t:R_t\notin (1/n,n)\}$, $n\ge 2$, the Itô formula givesThe coefficients are bounded by $n^2$, so each stopped Itô integral is a true martingale on every finite horizon. The stopping times form a localizing sequence; as permitted, its divergence need not be proved here. Thus $M$ is a nonnegative continuous local martingale.

To see that $M$ is not a true martingale, integrate the three-dimensional multivariate normal density of $U_t$ in spherical coordinates. The angular integral yieldswhere $\Phi$ is the standard normal distribution function. Therefore the reciprocal of a three-dimensional Bessel process is a strict local martingale.