Let . Choose . Boundedness of the minimizers and the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem yield a subsequence, still indexed by , with . Each is deterministic, hence so is . The first exponential term gives
and passing to the limit gives .
To obtain the superhedging inequality, suppose instead that . There is then an such that the event has positive probability. Let almost surely. For all sufficiently large ,
Consequently on , giving
a contradiction. The limiting portfolio meets both constraints:
Bounded is used precisely to turn convergence of deterministic holdings into a uniform bound on the payoff error.
Let be the stock holding and let be the initial cost, so the cash holding is . Terminal portfolio wealth at stock price is . Dominating the European call option payoff at the three possible prices gives
Adding the two endpoint inequalities yields . Equality is attained by and , which imply . The corresponding terminal wealth is at , respectively, compared with the required payoff . The cheapest super-replication strategy is
The middle-state excess shows why this is superhedging rather than exact claim replication. The endpoint bound proves global minimality, without relying on the physical state probabilities.
The positive-part function is convex, so pathwise Jensen inequality gives
To compare the Asian option price with European call option prices at different dates, carry each earlier payoff forward using the numéraire. Purchase of each replicating strategy for maturity , and, when its payoff is received, reinvest it in until . This is a self-financing portfolio, with terminal wealth
The first inequality uses and nonnegative payoffs. Since the Asian option is replicable in the complete market, absence of arbitrage makes its replication cost no larger than this superhedging cost. Therefore
Equivalently, divide the first pathwise bound by , use , and take expectations under the numéraire equivalent martingale measure. Merely averaging earlier payoffs without reinvestment would miss the difference in payment dates.
Superhedging price 2026-10-06
The infimum of initial costs of admissible superhedging portfolios. Positive pricing kernels supply lower bounds: if and , then whenever these expectations exist.