Friday, August 24, 2018

stochastic calculus - Uniqueness of equivalent martingale measure in Black Scholes-Model


Let's consider standard Black-Scholes model with price process St satisfying SDE dSt=St(bdt+σdBt)

, where Bt is standard Brownian Motion for probability P. I understand the proof of existence of martingal measure Q equivalent to P based on Girsanov theorem, but I can't see how to derive uniqueness of Q. Can you help?


Edit: In Jeanblanc, Yor, Chesney Mathematical Methods for Financial Markets I found the following proof:




If Q is equivalent to P then there exists strictly positive martingale Lt such that Q|Ft=LtP|Ft. From the predictable representation property under P, there exists a predictable ψ such that dLt=ψtdBt=LtϕtdBt,

where ψt=ϕtLt. It follows that d(LRS)tmart=(LRS)t(br+ϕtσ)dt
(where dXtmart=dYt for semimartingales X and Y means that XY is a local martingale, Rt=ert is a discount process). Hence, in order for Q to be an e.m.m., or equivalently for LRS to be a P-local martingale, there is one and only one process ϕ such that the bounded variation part of LRS is null, that is ϕt=rbσ=θ.



Now Girsanov theorem gives us the existence of such e.m.m. and fact that ϕ is unique gives us uniqueness of Q. Unfortunately, I don't understand where mart= equality comes from and why for LRS to be a P-local martingale, there must be process ϕ such that the bounded variation part of LRS is null. Do you have any idea how to proceed with these steps?


I am especially interested in the proof of d(LRS)tmart=(LRS)t(br+ϕtσ)dt.



Answer



A martingale must have constant expectation, such that adding a deterministic finite variation process (br)dt would break the martingale property (except for when its a constant, which it is not by multiplication with dt).


Hence the finite variation process must be eliminated under Q for LRS to be an (equivalent) martingale measure, and as shown the only unique choice in this case is ϕt=θ.


The assertion mart= does not represent an equality per se, it is the postulated martingale requirement under Q. Q is then chosen by Girsanov theorem with ϕt=θ such that mart= holds.


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