From 6ce0bb9a8f9fd7d169cbb414a9537d68c5290aae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Prefetch Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2022 23:25:28 +0200 Subject: Initial commit after migration from Hugo --- source/know/concept/martingale/index.md | 62 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 62 insertions(+) create mode 100644 source/know/concept/martingale/index.md (limited to 'source/know/concept/martingale') diff --git a/source/know/concept/martingale/index.md b/source/know/concept/martingale/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f64c22e --- /dev/null +++ b/source/know/concept/martingale/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +title: "Martingale" +date: 2021-10-31 +categories: +- Mathematics +- Stochastic analysis +layout: "concept" +--- + +A **martingale** is a type of +[stochastic process](/know/concept/stochastic-process/) +with important and useful properties, +especially for stochastic calculus. + +For a stochastic process $\{ M_t : t \ge 0 \}$ +on a probability filtered space $(\Omega, \mathcal{F}, \{ \mathcal{F}_t \}, P)$, +then $M_t$ is a martingale if it satisfies all of the following: + +1. $M_t$ is $\mathcal{F}_t$-adapted, meaning + the filtration $\mathcal{F}_t$ contains enough information + to reconstruct the current and all past values of $M_t$. +2. For all times $t \ge 0$, the expectation value exists $\mathbf{E}(M_t) < \infty$. +3. For all $s, t$ satisfying $0 \le s \le t$, + the [conditional expectation](/know/concept/conditional-expectation/) + $\mathbf{E}(M_t | \mathcal{F}_s) = M_s$, + meaning the increment $M_t \!-\! M_s$ is always expected + to be zero $\mathbf{E}(M_t \!-\! M_s | \mathcal{F}_s) = 0$. + +The last condition is called the **martingale property**, +and basically means that a martingale is an unbiased random walk. +Accordingly, the [Wiener process](/know/concept/wiener-process/) $B_t$ +(Brownian motion) is an example of a martingale, +since each of its increments $B_t \!-\! B_s$ has mean $0$ by definition. + +Martingales are easily confused with +[Markov processes](/know/concept/markov-process/), +because stochastic processes will often be both, +e.g. the Wiener process. +However, these are distinct concepts: +the martingale property says nothing about history-dependence, +and the Markov property does not say *what* the future expectation should be. + +Modifying property (3) leads to two common generalizations. +The stochastic process $M_t$ above is a **submartingale** +if the current value is a lower bound for the expectation: + +3. For $0 \le s \le t$, the conditional expectation $\mathbf{E}(M_t | \mathcal{F}_s) \ge M_s$. + +Analogouly, $M_t$ is a **supermartingale** +if the current value is an upper bound instead: + +3. For $0 \le s \le t$, the conditional expectation $\mathbf{E}(M_t | \mathcal{F}_s) \le M_s$. + +Clearly, submartingales and supermartingales are *biased* random walks, +since they will tend to increase and decrease with time, respectively. + + + +## References +1. U.H. Thygesen, + *Lecture notes on diffusions and stochastic differential equations*, + 2021, Polyteknisk Kompendie. -- cgit v1.2.3