Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 211 / 2 / a

Let ${\tau }_n\uparrow \infty$ be a localizing sequence for the discrete-time local martingale $X$. For $t\ge 1$, the increment of the stopped martingale isand $\{{\tau }_n\ge t\}\in {\mathcal{F}}_{t-1}$. Thus, for any $A\in {\mathcal{F}}_{t-1}$,The assumed integrability gives the dominating random variable $|X_t|+|X_{t-1}|$. The dominated convergence theorem now yields $\mathbb{E}[1_A(X_t-X_{t-1})]=0$, or $\mathbb{E}[X_t\mid {\mathcal{F}}_{t-1}]=X_{t-1}$. Iterating the tower property of conditional expectation proves an integrable discrete-time local martingale is a true martingale. The proof uses the discrete-time increment indicator; the conclusion does not extend to continuous time.