We consider default by firms that are part of a single clearing mechanism. The obligations of all firms within the system are determined simultaneously in a fashion consistent with the priority of debt claims and the limited liability of equity. We first show, via a fixed-point argument, that there always exists a "clearing payment vector" that clears the obligations of the members of the clearing system; under mild regularity conditions, this clearing vector is unique. Next, we develop an algorithm that both clears the financial system in a computationally efficient fashion and provides information on the systemic risk faced by the individual system firms. Finally, we produce qualitative comparative statics for financial systems. These comparative statics imply that, in contrast to single-firm results, even unsystematic, nondissipative shocks to the system will lower the total value of the system and may lower the value of the equity of some of the individual system firms.
The present monograph, based mainly on studies of the authors and their - authors, and also on lectures given by the authors in the past few years, has the following particular aims: To present basic results (with proofs) of optimal stopping theory in both discrete and continuous time using both martingale and Mar- vian approaches; To select a seriesof concrete problems ofgeneral interest from the t- ory of probability, mathematical statistics, and mathematical ?nance that can be reformulated as problems of optimal stopping of stochastic processes and solved by reduction to free-boundary problems of real analysis (Stefan problems). The table of contents found below gives a clearer idea of the material included in the monograph. Credits and historical comments are given at the end of each chapter or section. The bibliography contains a material for further reading. Acknowledgements.TheauthorsthankL.E.Dubins,S.E.Graversen,J.L.Ped- sen and L. A. Shepp for useful discussions. The authors are grateful to T. B. To- zovafortheexcellenteditorialworkonthemonograph.Financialsupportandh- pitality from ETH, Zur ¨ ich (Switzerland), MaPhySto (Denmark), MIMS (Man- ester) and Thiele Centre (Aarhus) are gratefully acknowledged. The authors are also grateful to INTAS and RFBR for the support provided under their grants. The grant NSh-1758.2003.1 is gratefully acknowledged. Large portions of the text were presented in the “School and Symposium on Optimal Stopping with App- cations” that was held in Manchester, England from 17th to 27th January 2006.
Probability. Measure. Integration. Random Variables and Expected Values. Convergence of Distributions. Derivatives and Conditional Probability. Stochastic Processes. Appendix. Notes on the Problems. Bibliography. List of Symbols. Index.
We consider a nondominated model of a discrete-time financial market where
stocks are traded dynamically and options are available for static hedging. In
a general measure-theoretic setting, we show that absence of arbitrage in a
quasi-sure sense is equivalent to the existence of a suitable family of
martingale measures. In the arbitrage-free case, we show that optimal
superhedging strategies exist for general contingent claims, and that the
minimal superhedging price is given by the supremum over the martingale
measures. Moreover, we obtain a nondominated version of the Optional
Decomposition Theorem.
We present an introduction to mathematical Finance Theory for mathematicians. The approach is to start with an abstract setting and then introduce hypotheses as needed to develop the theory. We present the basics of European call and put options, and we show the connection between American put options and backwards stochastic differential equations.