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9
General Processes: Mathematical Facts
In this chapter, we consider studies involving c`adl`ag processes. We pay par-
ticular attention to semi-martingales with respect to a given filtration; these
processes will always be taken with c`adl`ag paths. We present the definition
of stochastic integrals with respect to a square integrable martingale, and we
extend the definition to stochastic integrals with respect to a local martingale.
Then, we introduce semi-martingales, quadratic covariation processes for
semi-martingales and some general versions of Itˆo’s formula and Girsanov’s
theorem. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an
equivalent martingale measure. We end the chapter with a brief survey of
valuation in an incomplete market.
The reader may refer to the lectures of Itˆo[464], Meyer [647]andthe
books of Kallenberg [505] and Protter [727]. The general theory of stochastic
processes is presented in Dellacherie [240], Dellacherie and Meyer [242, 244],
Dellacherie, Maisonneuve and Meyer [241] and He et al. [427]. More advanced
results are given in Jacod and Shiryaev [471]andBichteler[88]. The survey
papers of Kunita [549] and Runggaldier [750] are excellent introductions to
this subject with finance in view. Applications to finance can be found in
Prigent [725] and Shiryaev [791].
We assume that a filtered probability space (Ω, F, F, P) is given, with
some filtration F, satisfying the usual conditions. We recall that the notation
X
mart
= Y means that X − Y is a local martingale.
9.1 Some Basic Facts about c`adl`ag Processes
9.1.1 An Illustrative Lemma
To justify why c`adl`ag processes are considered throughout the development
of semi-martingales, we note the very elementary lemma:
M. Jeanblanc, M. Yor, M. Chesney, Mathematical Methods for Financial
Markets, Springer Finance, DOI 10.1007/978-1-84628-737-4
9,
c
Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009
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