Paper 2, Section II, 29K

Stochastic Financial Models
Part II, 2020

Let (Sn0,Sn)0nT\left(S_{n}^{0}, S_{n}\right)_{0 \leqslant n \leqslant T} be a discrete-time asset price model in Rd+1\mathbb{R}^{d+1} with numéraire.

(i) What is meant by an arbitrage for such a model?

(ii) What does it mean to say that the model is complete?

Consider now the case where d=1d=1 and where

Sn0=(1+r)n,Sn=S0k=1nZkS_{n}^{0}=(1+r)^{n}, \quad S_{n}=S_{0} \prod_{k=1}^{n} Z_{k}

for some r>0r>0 and some independent positive random variables Z1,,ZTZ_{1}, \ldots, Z_{T} with logZnN(μ,σ2)\log Z_{n} \sim N\left(\mu, \sigma^{2}\right) for all nn.

(iii) Find an equivalent probability measure P\mathbb{P}^{*} such that the discounted asset price (Sn/Sn0)0nT\left(S_{n} / S_{n}^{0}\right)_{0 \leqslant n \leqslant T} is a martingale.

(iv) Does this model have an arbitrage? Justify your answer.

(v) By considering the contingent claim (S1)2\left(S_{1}\right)^{2} or otherwise, show that this model is not complete.