If satisfies the pricing equation for a local volatility model, hold stocks and units of the bank account. Their value is . The pricing equation for a local volatility model and Itô formula give
Thus this is a self-financing strategy, with terminal value . It is a delta hedge, and nonnegative makes its wealth an admissible trading strategy. The stock and bank wealth amounts are and , rather than the asset-unit holdings.
In the zero-interest local volatility model , the risk-neutral pricing value of the European contingent claim , for and , is
The compound Poisson transition law of a driftless square-root diffusion proves finiteness and this conditional-expectation formula. Alternatively, substituting into the pricing equation for a local volatility model gives and , with terminal values . Hence and . The conditional-expectation calculation verifies that this formal solution is the price of the unbounded claim. The delta hedge holds stocks and bank units.
The diffusion coefficient becomes , so the stock is a driftless square-root diffusion, with zero taken as an absorbing boundary. Substitution of into the pricing equation for a local volatility model gives
Equating the constant and linear terms and imposing the terminal payoff gives
Thus and , and the price is
This is the exponential claim in a driftless square-root model. At the absorbing boundary its value is , matching the payoff at zero.
The payoff in this part is unbounded, unlike the payoff assumed in part (i), so it is useful to verify that the proposed price is a finite conditional expectation. For , starting from stock value , define
Then , , and . By Itô formula, is a bounded local martingale, hence a true martingale. It follows that
This is also the Laplace transform of a sum of independent variables with exponential distribution of rate , where has Poisson distribution of mean and is independent of the summands: its transform is . Uniqueness of the Laplace transform therefore gives the compound Poisson transition law of a driftless square-root diffusion. The exponential distribution jump has exponential moment whenever . Summing over the Poisson distribution yields
For the remaining horizon , this is finite and, by the Markov property, is precisely . Thus the displayed process is indeed the risk-neutral pricing value and a true martingale. The replicating strategy from part (ii) has and .
Let be the given risk-neutral measure, and write . Take to be classical on and continuous at its prescribed terminal value. By Itô formula and the pricing equation for a local volatility model,
so
The discounted added asset is a local martingale, as is , while . Consequently is an equivalent local martingale measure for all three assets.
Here is the arbitrage argument, including the usual admissible trading strategy condition. If is the discounted wealth of a self-financing strategy, it is a stochastic integral against the discounted asset prices, plus its initial value, and hence a local martingale. Assume for a fixed , as required for an admissible trading strategy. For a localizing sequence , the stopped process is a martingale. Apply the conditional Fatou lemma to : for , continuity and the stopped martingale identity give . Thus is a supermartingale. An arbitrage would have , and positive probability of . Equivalence of makes that probability positive under , contradicting . Therefore the augmented market has no admissible arbitrage.
Nonnegativity of gives the needed price process, but does not by itself make its discounted local martingale a true martingale. If is bounded, the latter follows by bounded localization, and its price is also . The arbitrage proof above applies to the stated nonnegative classical solution without assuming that additional bound.