Paper 2, Section II, 30K

Stochastic Financial Models | Part II, 2021

Consider a one-period market model with dd risky assets and one risk-free asset. Let StS_{t} denote the vector of prices of the risky assets at time t{0,1}t \in\{0,1\} and let rr be the interest rate.

(a) What does it mean to say a portfolio φRd\varphi \in \mathbb{R}^{d} is an arbitrage for this market?

(b) An investor wishes to maximise their expected utility of time-1 wealth X1X_{1} attainable by investing in the market with their time- 0 wealth X0=xX_{0}=x. The investor's utility function UU is increasing and concave. Show that, if there exists an optimal solution X1X_{1}^{*} to the investor's expected utility maximisation problem, then the market has no arbitrage. [Assume that U(X1)U\left(X_{1}\right) is integrable for any attainable time-1 wealth X1X_{1}.]

(c) Now introduce a contingent claim with time-1 bounded payout YY. How does the investor in part (b) calculate an indifference bid price π(Y)\pi(Y) for the claim? Assuming each such claim has a unique indifference price, show that the map Yπ(Y)Y \mapsto \pi(Y) is concave. [Assume that any relevant utility maximisation problem that you consider has an optimal solution.]

(d) Consider a contingent claim with time-1 bounded payout YY. Let IRI \subseteq \mathbb{R} be the set of initial no-arbitrage prices for the claim; that is, the set II consists of all pp such that the market augmented with the contingent claim with time- 0 price pp has no arbitrage. Show that π(Y)sup{pI}\pi(Y) \leqslant \sup \{p \in I\}. [Assume that any relevant utility maximisation problem that you consider has an optimal solution. You may use results from lectures without proof, such as the fundamental theorem of asset pricing or the existence of marginal utility prices, as long as they are clearly stated.]

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