Deflator-based claim replication 2026-10-05
In a one-factor market whose filtration is the usual augmentation of the natural Brownian filtration, with nonzero spot volatility and local martingale deflator , the Brownian martingale representation theorem constructs a nonnegative replicating strategy for a bounded nonnegative contingent claim. The minimal initial cost among nonnegative self-financing portfolios is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 211 6 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use positive initial asset prices and the usual augmentation of the natural Brownian filtration. Define the market price of riskContinuity and strict positivity of imply on every finite horizon almost surely, because each path has a positive minimum of there. Hence the strictly positive stochastic exponentialis defined and has and . The Itô product rule givesso it is a local martingale deflator.
For uniqueness, let be any normalized strictly positive local martingale deflator. The Brownian martingale representation theorem makes a continuous local martingale with a Brownian motion integral representation. Dividing by therefore gives . The vanishing drift of requires , so . This scalar linear stochastic differential equation has exactly the exponential solution above, proving the normalized local martingale deflator is unique.
The assumptions do not make deterministically bounded: need not be bounded away from zero uniformly over outcomes. Thus a true martingale density or Novikov condition is not inferred here; the required conclusion is local.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 211 6 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Fix the maturity horizon. Since is a nonnegative local martingale and is bounded, : and . The bounded nonnegative payoff thus makes integrable. SetThe Brownian martingale representation theorem yields , using its locally square-integrable version for an integrable terminal random variable. The Itô formula for givesChoose the replicating strategyIts self-financing portfolio equation has exactly the displayed drift and diffusion, because . All coefficients are locally integrable after stopping; the holdings are predictable in the augmented natural Brownian filtration. This construction has and , so it is an admissible replicating strategy under the question's nonnegative-wealth convention.
For any other nonnegative self-financing portfolio replicating the same payoff, part (b) implies . The constructed strategy attains equality, since and in the augmented natural Brownian filtration. HenceThis is deflator-based claim replication; it does not require upgrading the local martingale deflator to a true martingale density.