Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2004 / iii / Paper 30 / 2 / a

For continuous semimartingales $U,V$, the semimartingale integration by parts formula isIndeed each partition increment satisfiesSumming telescopes the left side. The first two sums converge to the stochastic integrals by left-endpoint approximation, and the last sum converges to the quadratic covariation by polarization of the quadratic-increment formula. All limits are in uniform convergence on compacts in probability. Hence the equality holds at every time outside one null set, using continuity. In differential notation it is the Itô product rule $d(UV)=UdV+VdU+d[U,V]$.

For a vector of continuous semimartingales $X=(X^1,\dots ,X^d)$ and $F\in C^{1,2}$, the multidimensional Itô formula isOne route from the product formula is to apply it repeatedly to powers and products of the coordinates, obtaining this expression for polynomials; polarization identifies the mixed second derivatives. Time is another coordinate of finite variation, so it has no quadratic-covariation contribution. Localize to compact ranges, approximate a $C^{1,2}$ function and its indicated derivatives by smooth polynomial approximations, and pass to the limit using stochastic-integral continuity and the variation bounds on the finite-variation terms. Equivalently, second-order Taylor expansion along partitions gives the same limit, with integration by parts accounting for every quadratic term.