In this paper we consider (probability-)measure valued processes, which we call MVMs, which have a natural martingale structure. Following previous work of Eldan and Cox-Källblad, these processes are known to have a close connection to the solutions to the Skorokhod Embedding Problem. In this paper, we consider properties of these processes, and in particular, we are able to show that the MVMs connected to the Bass and Root embeddings have natural measure-valued analogues which also possess natural optimality properties. We also introduce a new MVM which is a generalisation of both the Bass and Root MVMs.
The martingale optimal transport aims to optimally transfer a probability measure to another along the class of martingales. This problem is mainly motivated by the robust superhedging of exotic derivatives in financial mathematics, which turns out to be the corresponding Kantorovich dual. In this paper we consider the continuous-time martingale transport on the Skorokhod space of cadlag paths. Similar to the classical setting of optimal transport, we introduce different dual problems and establish the corresponding dualities by a crucial use of the S-topology and the dynamic programming princ…
We consider the optimal Skorokhod embedding problem (SEP) given full marginals over the time interval $[0,1]$. The problem is related to the study of extremal martingales associated with a peacock ("process increasing in convex order", by Hirsch, Profeta, Roynette and Yor). A general duality result is obtained by convergence techniques. We then study the case where the reward function depends on the maximum of the embedding process, which is the limit of the martingale transport problem studied in Henry-Labordere, Obloj, Spoida and Touzi. Under technical conditions, some explicit characteristi…
We prove a robust super-hedging duality result for path-dependent options on assets with jumps, in a continuous time setting. It requires that the collection of martingale measures is rich enough and that the payoff function satisfies some continuity property. It is a by-product of a quasi-sure version of the optional decomposition theorem, which can also be viewed as a functional version of It{ô}'s Lemma, that applies to non-smooth functionals (of c{à}dl{à}g processes) which are only concave in space and non-increasing in time, in the sense of Dupire.
The Skorokhod embedding problem aims to represent a given probability measure on the real line as the distribution of Brownian motion stopped at a chosen stopping time. In this paper, we consider an extension of the optimal Skorokhod embedding problem to the case of finitely-many marginal constraints. Using the classical convex duality approach together with the optimal stopping theory, we obtain the duality results which are formulated by means of probability measures on an enlarged space. We also relate these results to the problem of martingale optimal transport under multiple marginal cons…
Bridging Schrödinger and Bass: A Semimartingale Optimal Transport Problem with Diffusion Control
QubeRT；BNPP and Monash University（法国巴黎银行和蒙纳士大学）；LPSM, Sorbonne Université and Université Paris Cité（LPSM、索邦大学和巴黎西岱大学）；Ecole Polytechnique, CMAP（巴黎综合理工学院，CMAP）；NYU Tandon School of Engineering（纽约大学坦登工程学院）
We introduce a Skorokhod type integral and prove an Ito formula for a wide class of Gaussian processes which may exhibit stochastic discontinuities. Our Ito formula unifies and extends the classical one for general (i.e., possibly discontinuous) Gaussian martingales in the sense of Ito integration and the one for stochastically continuous Gaussian non-martingales in the Skorokhod sense, which was first derived in Alos et al. (Ann. Probab. 29, 2001).
We modify the global Skorokhod topology, on the space of cadlag paths, by localising with respect to space variable, in order to include the eventual explosions. The tightness of families of probability measures on the paths space endowed with this local Skorokhod topology is studied and a characterization of Aldous type is obtained. The local and global Skorokhod topologies are compared by using a time change transformation. A number of results in the paper should play an important role when studying Lévy-type processes with unbounded coefficients by martingale problem approach.
This paper is devoted to the study of a certain type of martingale problems associated to general operators corresponding to processes which have finite lifetime. We analyse several properties and in particular the weak convergence of sequences of solutions for an appropriate Skorokhod topology setting. We point out the Feller-type features of the associated solutions to this type of martingale problem. Then localisation theorems for well-posed martingale problems or for corresponding generators are proved.
It is known that the Azema-Yor solution to the Skorokhod embedding problem maximizes the law of the running maximum of an uniformly integrable martingale with given terminal value distribution. Recently this optimality property has been generalized to expectations of certain bivariate cost functions depending on the terminal value and the running maximum. In this paper we give an extension of this result to another class of functions. In particular, we study a class of cost functions with the property that the corresponding optimal embeddings are not Azema-Yor. The suggested approach is quite …
We show that the left-monotone martingale coupling is optimal for any given performance function satisfying the martingale version of the Spence-Mirrlees condition, without assuming additional structural conditions on the marginals. We also give a new interpretation of the left monotone coupling in terms of Skorokhod embedding which allows us to give a short proof of uniqueness.
We develop an explicit non-randomized solution to the Skorokhod embedding problem in an abstract setup of signed functionals of Markovian excursions. Our setting allows to solve the Skorokhod embedding problem, in particular, for diffusions and their (signed, scaled) age processes, for Azema's martingale, for spectrally one-sided Levy processes and their reflected versions, for Bessel processes of dimension smaller than 2, and for their age processes, as well as for the age process of excursions of Cox-Ingersoll-Ross processes. This work is a continuation and an important generalization of Obl…
We discuss certain facts involving a continuous local martingale $N$ and its supremum $\bar{N}$. A complete characterization of $(N,\bar{N})$-harmonic functions is proposed. This yields an important family of martingales, the usefulness of which is demonstrated, by means of examples involving the Skorokhod embedding problem, bounds on the law of the supremum, or the local time at 0, of a martingale with a fixed terminal distribution, or yet in some Brownian penalization problems. In particular we obtain new bounds on the law of the local time at 0, which involve the excess wealth order.
Stochastic Hall-magnetohydrodynamics equations on ${\mathbb{R}}^{3}$ with random forces expressed in terms of the time homogeneous Poisson random measures are considered. We prove the existence of a global martingale solution. The construction of a solution is based on the Fourier truncation method, stochastic compactness method and a version of the Skorokhod theorem for non-metric spaces adequate for Poisson type random fields.
In this paper, the three-dimensional stochastic nonhomogeneous incompressible Navier-Stokes equations driven by Lévy process consisting of the Brownian motion, the compensated Poisson random measure and the Poisson random measure are considered in a bounded domain. We obtain the existence of martingale solutions. The construction of the solution is based on the classical Galerkin approximation method, stopping time, the compactness method and the Jakubowski-Skorokhod theorem.
In this work we consider a stochastic evolution equation which describes the system governing the nematic liquid crystals driven by a pure jump noise. The existence of a martingale solution is proved for both 2D and 3D cases. The construction of the solution is based on the classical Faedo-Galerkin approximation, compactness method and the Jakubowski's version of the Skorokhod representation theorem for non-metric spaces. We prove the solution is pathwise unique and further establish the existence of a strong solution in the 2D case.
In this paper, we provide some results on Skorokhod embedding with local time and its applications to the robust hedging problem in finance. First we investigate the robust hedging of options depending on the local time by using the recently introduced stochastic control approach, in order to identify the optimal hedging strategies, as well as the market models that realize the extremal no-arbitrage prices. As a by-product, the optimality of Vallois' Skorokhod embeddings is recovered. In addition, under appropriate conditions, we derive a new solution to the two-marginal Skorokhod embedding as…
We show the existence of Lévy-type stochastic processes in one space dimension with characteristic triplets that are either discontinuous at thresholds, or are stable-like with stability index functions for which the closures of the discontinuity sets are countable. For this purpose, we formulate the problem in terms of a Skorokhod-space martingale problem associated with non-local operators with discontinuous coefficients. These operators are approximated along a sequence of smooth non-local operators giving rise to Feller processes with uniformly controlled symbols. They converge uniformly o…
We prove the uniqueness of the martingale problem associated to some degenerate operators. The key point is to exploit the strong parallel between the new technique introduced by Bass and Perkins (From Probability to Geometry, vol. in honor of J.M Bismut (2009)) to prove uniqueness of the martingale problem in the framework of non degenerated elliptic operators and the Mc Kean and Singer (Journal of Diff. Geometry, 1967) parametrix approach to the density expansion that has previously been extended to the degenerate setting that we consider (see Delarue and Menozzi, Journal of Funct. Analysis,…
This paper focuses on martingale optimal transport problems when the martingales are assumed to have bounded quadratic variation. First, we give a result that characterizes the existence of a probability measure satisfying some convex transport constraints in addition to having given initial and terminal marginals. Several applications are provided: martingale measures with volatility uncertainty, optimal transport with capacity constraints, and Skorokhod embedding with bounded times. Next, we extend this result to multi-marginal constraints. Finally, we consider an optimal transport problem w…
The Skorokhod Embedding Problem (SEP) is one of the classical problems in the study of stochastic processes, with applications in many different fields (cf.~ the surveys \cite{Ob04,Ho11}). Many of these applications have natural multi-marginal extensions leading to the \emph{(optimal) multi-marginal Skorokhod problem} (MSEP). Some of the first papers to consider this problem are \cite{Ho98b, BrHoRo01b, MaYo02}. However, this turns out to be difficult using existing techniques: only recently a complete solution was be obtained in \cite{CoObTo15} establishing an extension of the Root constructio…
It is well known that given two probability measures $μ$ and $ν$ on $\mathbb{R}$ in convex order there exists a discrete-time martingale with these marginals. Several solutions are known (for example from the literature on the Skorokhod embedding problem in Brownian motion). But, if we add a requirement that the martingale should minimise the expected value of some functional of its starting and finishing positions then the problem becomes more difficult. Beiglböck and Juillet (Ann. Probab. 44 (2016) 42-106) introduced the shadow measure which induces a family of martingale couplings, and solv…
Given a family $(μ_λ,λ\geq0)$ of integrable mean-zero probability measures such that, for every $λ\geq0$, $μ_λ$ is the image of $μ_1$ under the homothety $y\longmapsto\sqrtλy$, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition on $μ_1$ under which the Root embedding algorithm yields a self-similar martingale with one-dimensional marginals $(μ_λ,λ\geq0)$. Precisely, if $τ_λ$ and $R_λ$ denote the Root solution to the Skorokhod embedding problem (SEP) and the Root regular barrier for $μ_λ$ respectively, then this condition is equivalent to the property that $(R_λ,λ\geq0)$ is non-increasing in the s…
The Fleming-Viot (FV) process is a measure-valued diffusion that models the evolution of type frequencies in a countable population which evolves under resampling (genetic drift), mutation, and selection. In the classic FV model the fitness (strength) of types is given by a measurable function. In this paper, we introduce and study the Fleming-Viot process in random environment (FVRE), when by random environment we mean the fitness of types is a stochastic process with càdlàg paths. We identify FVRE as the unique solution to a so called quenched martingale problem and derive some of its proper…
We revisit work of Rost, Dupire and Cox--Wang on connections between Root's solution of the Skorokhod embedding problem and obstacle problems. We develop an approach based on viscosity sub- and supersolutions and an accompanying comparison principle. This gives a complete characterization of (reversed) Root barriers and leads to new proofs of existence as well as minimality of such barrier solutions by pure PDE methods. The approach is self-contained and general enough to cover martingale diffusions with degenerate elliptic or time-dependent volatility; it also provides insights about the dyna…
We develop a class of pathwise inequalities of the form $H(B_t)\ge M_t+F(L_t)$, where $B_t$ is Brownian motion, $L_t$ its local time at zero and $M_t$ a local martingale. The concrete nature of the representation makes the inequality useful for a variety of applications. In this work, we use the inequalities to derive constructions and optimality results of Vallois' Skorokhod embeddings. We discuss their financial interpretation in the context of robust pricing and hedging of options written on the local time. In the final part of the paper we use the inequalities to solve a class of optimal s…
We introduce a new method for obtaining quantitative convergence rates for the central limit theorem (CLT) in a high dimensional setting. Using our method, we obtain several new bounds for convergence in transportation distance and entropy, and in particular: (a) We improve the best known bound, obtained by the third named author, for convergence in quadratic Wasserstein transportation distance for bounded random vectors; (b) We derive the first non-asymptotic convergence rate for the entropic CLT in arbitrary dimension, for general log-concave random vectors; (c) We give an improved bound for…
We investigate the asymptotic behaviour of networks of interacting non-linear Hawkes processes modeling a homogeneous population of neurons in the large population limit. In particular, we prove a functional central limit theorem for the mean spike-activity thereby characterizing the asymptotic fluctuations in terms of a stochastic Volterra integral equation. Our approach differs from previous approaches in making use of the associated resolvent in order to represent the fluctutations as Skorokhod continuous mappings of weakly converging martingales. Since the Lipschitz properties of the resol…
A classical result of Strassen asserts that given probabilities $μ, ν$ on the real line which are in convex order, there exists a \emph{martingale coupling} with these marginals, i.e.\ a random vector $(X_1,X_2)$ such that $X_1\sim μ, X_2\sim ν$ and $E[X_2|X_1]=X_1$. Remarkably, it is a non trivial problem to construct particular solutions to this problem. In this article, we introduce a family of such martingale couplings, each of which admits several characterizations in terms of optimality properties / geometry of the support set / representation through a Skorokhod embedding. As a particul…
In this paper, we consider the special class of positive local submartingales (X_{t}) of the form: X_{t}=N_{t}+A_{t}, where the measure (dA_{t}) is carried by the set {t: X_{t}=0}. We show that many examples of stochastic processes studied in the literature are in this class and propose a unified approach based on martingale techniques to study them. In particular, we establish some martingale characterizations for these processes and compute explicitly some distributions involving the pair (X_{t},A_{t}). We also associate with X a solution to the Skorokhod's stopping problem for probability m…
We obtain bounds on the distribution of the maximum of a martingale with fixed marginals at finitely many intermediate times. The bounds are sharp and attained by a solution to $n$-marginal Skorokhod embedding problem in Obłój and Spoida [An iterated Azéma-Yor type embedding for finitely many marginals (2013) Preprint]. It follows that their embedding maximizes the maximum among all other embeddings. Our motivating problem is superhedging lookback options under volatility uncertainty for an investor allowed to dynamically trade the underlying asset and statically trade European call options fo…
We solve the $n$-marginal Skorokhod embedding problem for a continuous local martingale and a sequence of probability measures $μ_1,...,μ_n$ which are in convex order and satisfy an additional technical assumption. Our construction is explicit and is a multiple marginal generalisation of the Azema and Yor (1979) solution. In particular, we recover the stopping boundaries obtained by Brown et al. (2001) and Madan and Yor (2002). Our technical assumption is necessary for the explicit embedding, as demonstrated with a counterexample. We discuss extensions to the general case giving details when $…
In classical optimal transport, the contributions of Benamou-Brenier and McCann regarding the time-dependent version of the problem are cornerstones of the field and form the basis for a variety of applications in other mathematical areas. We suggest a Benamou-Brenier type formulation of the martingale transport problem for given $d$-dimensional distributions $μ, ν$ in convex order. The unique solution $M^*=(M_t^*)_{t\in [0,1]}$ of this problem turns out to be a Markov-martingale which has several notable properties: In a specific sense it mimics the movement of a Brownian particle as closely …
We study the class of Azéma-Yor processes defined from a general semimartingale with a continuous running maximum process. We show that they arise as unique strong solutions of the Bachelier stochastic differential equation which we prove is equivalent to the drawdown equation. Solutions of the latter have the drawdown property: they always stay above a given function of their past maximum. We then show that any process which satisfies the drawdown property is in fact an Azéma-Yor process. The proofs exploit group structure of the set of Azéma-Yor processes, indexed by functions, which we intr…
