Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2001 / iii / Paper 23 / 5 / b

Under the specified risk-neutral measure, the Itô product rule and $d(B_t^{-1})=-r_t{B}_t^{-1}dt$ giveThus discounted traded zero-coupon bonds have zero drift. Assume the usual integrability and admissibility conditions that make discounted replicating values true martingales, not merely local martingales. If $X$ is an attainable financial payoff with ${\mathbb{E}}_Q|B_T^{-1}X|<\infty$, its self-financing portfolio value $V_t$ has terminal value $V_T=X$ and satisfiesMultiplying by $B_t$ yieldsThis proves the requested conditional pricing formula. In a Brownian filtration, the Martingale representation theorem realizes the discounted conditional expectation as a stochastic integral. If an available bond has nonzero Itô diffusion exposure, its holdings can match that integral, with the remaining value in the bank account, giving replication under the usual square-integrability conditions.

These attainability or market completeness hypotheses matter for a completely arbitrary contingent claim: existence of a risk-neutral measure alone need not imply a unique price for every unspanned financial payoff, and a zero-drift local martingale alone need not satisfy the displayed terminal expectation identity. In the general path-dependent Heath-Jarrow-Morton model, write the value as $V_t$; notation $V(t,r_t)$ is justified only when the current short rate is a sufficient state for the financial payoff and dynamics.