Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 29 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Put . The stopped martingale in discrete time identityshows that is a martingale: the indicator function is -measurable and the increment has zero conditional expectation. Integrability follows because is selected from the finitely many integrable values .
For the bounded stopping time , the optional stopping theorem in its conditional form givesHere is the stopping-time sigma-algebra. Indeed, for , partition into and apply the martingale identity on each piece. This proves the displayed conditional expectation identity directly.
Let and . Conditional absolute-value domination and the Markov inequality give and, for any ,First choose using the uniform integrability of , and then choose . The estimate is uniform in , proving uniform integrability of a stopped uniformly integrable martingale. No finiteness assumption on is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 29 5 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For , the first time is a stopping time. On , the bounded increments assumption controls the overshoot:Before that time, . Allowing the possibility , the processis a nonnegative martingale. Indeed, the stopped martingale in discrete time is a martingale, and the integrable -measurable variable is a constant-in-time martingale. If , nonnegativity follows from . Its expectations are constant and finite, so the Martingale convergence theorem makes converge to a finite value almost surely.
On this proves finite convergence of . Taking the countable union over positive integer , we conclude that converges finitely on the event . Apply the same reasoning to the martingale to obtain finite convergence on .
Outside the event of finite convergence, both the infimum and the supremum of the sequence must therefore be infinite in the respective directions. Removing any finite initial segment cannot change this, because each of its values is finite. HenceThis is the bounded-increment martingale convergence-or-oscillation dichotomy. The term ensures the proof also covers an unbounded integrable initial value.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 30K c i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Assume (i), and let be a stopping time. The increments of the stopped process satisfyBecause , taking conditional expectation given makes the right-hand side zero. Integrability follows froma finite sum of integrable random variables. Hence is a martingale, proving (ii).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ii Paper 2 30L a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The increment of the stopped process isBecause is a stopping time, . Taking conditional expectation therefore gives zero. The stopped variables are adapted and integrable, so the stopped martingale in discrete time is a martingale.