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This compound European contingent claim gives the right to buy a later-expiring put option at time $T_1$ for $K_1$. Its payoff is $[p(T_1,S_{T_1};K_2,T_2)-K_1{]}^{+}$, with $T_1<T_2$. In the dividend-free Black-Scholes model with positive volatility, the underlying put price is continuous and strictly decreasing in positive spot. It approaches $K_2{e}^{-r(T_2-T_1)}$ as spot tends to zero and approaches zero as spot tends to infinity.

Thus a unique positive exercise threshold $s_{\ast }$ exists exactly when $0<K_1<K_2{e}^{-r(T_2-T_1)}$. Exercise is favorable for $S_{T_1}<s_{\ast }$, where the put value exceeds its purchase cost. If the cost is at least the upper limiting put value, exercise is never favorable. At zero exercise cost, the compound claim has exactly the underlying put's price by the tower property. These endpoint cases make the meaning of a nondegenerate threshold explicit.

A financial option grants a right, without a corresponding obligation to exercise, to transact at specified terms. A call option is a right to buy and a put option is a right to sell. The contract specifies its permitted exercise times and strike price; the value of that right differs from the exercise payoff at any particular time.

put-call parity and nonnegativity of the European put option giveFor $r\ge 0$ this is at least $S-K$, and the call value is also nonnegative, so $C^E$ dominates the immediate call exercise contingent claim payoff. Its discounted price is a martingale. At any admissible exercise time, optional stopping theorem therefore bounds the expected discounted call option by the European call option price. Exercising at maturity attains that price. Hence American and European calls coincide for this non-dividend model with nonnegative rates.

For the strict put comparison assume $r>0$, $\sigma >0$, $S>0$ and $t<T$. Choose $u$ strictly between $t$ and $T$. A European put option at $u$ has value at most $K{e}^{-r(T-u)}$. On the eventimmediate exercise gives $K-S_u>K{e}^{-r(T-u)}\ge P^E(u,S_u)$. This event has positive probability because the lognormal stock density is positive on $(0,\infty )$. Exercise there at time $u$, and otherwise hold to maturity. This strategy strictly improves the European put option expected value, provingunder these positive-rate, pre-maturity assumptions.

The source's strict statement needs those qualifications. At maturity the prices agree, and at $r=0$ the put option is a convex function of the martingale stock and therefore is a submartingale, so waiting to maturity is optimal and the American and European puts coincide. Negative rates also invalidate the nonnegative-rate call argument. These are mathematical assumptions of the comparison, rather than changes to the printed question.

Differentiate the homogeneity identity from part (a) with respect to $\lambda$ at $\lambda =1$. The chain rule gives Euler homogeneous function theorem in the formUsing the supplied put option spot derivative $p_x=-\Phi (-d_1)$ and the given price,For positive strike, division by $K$ gives the put-price strike derivativeIt is nonnegative, as increasing the strike increases the terminal put payoff.

At $T_1$, with underlying spot $s$, the call option on a put option paysLet $D=K_2{e}^{-r(T_2-T_1)}$. The underlying put option value is strictly decreasing and convex in $s>0$, with limits $D$ at zero and zero at infinity. If $0<K_1<D$, there is a unique $s_{\ast }$ at which that put value equals $K_1$. Hence the compound option payoff is a decreasing convex curve from $D-K_1$ to zero on $[0,s_{\ast }]$, followed by a horizontal zero segment. There is an upward kink at $s_{\ast }$. If $K_1\ge D$, the payoff is identically zero.

For $K_1=0$, the holder obtains the underlying put at no cost, so the payoff is its full value at $T_1$. The discounted put price is a martingale under the risk-neutral measure. Using the tower property in the risk-neutral pricing,Explicitly, this is $K_2{e}^{-r(T_2-t)}\Phi (-d_2)-s\Phi (-d_1)$ with $d_1,d_2$ evaluated over $T_2-t$. The intermediate choice time disappears when its exercise cost is zero.

A power put has financial payoff $(K-S{)}^n$ below the strike price $K$ and zero at or above it, where $n$ is a positive integer. For $n=1$ this is the ordinary put option. For every $n\ge 1$ the payoff is decreasing and is a convex function of the stock price. A European option permits exercise only at expiry; a perpetual power put option permits exercise at any finite time without a fixed expiry.