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 giveThus 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 , isThe 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 39 5 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
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 givesEquating the constant and linear terms and imposing the terminal payoff givesThus and , and the price isThis 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 , defineThen , , and . By Itô formula, is a bounded local martingale, hence a true martingale. It follows thatThis 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 yieldsFor 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 .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 39 5 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
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,soThe 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.