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Computing Covariance with Correlated Brownian Integrals and an Exponential

Article Quant Q&A · Author: DeepInTheQF

Summary

The question concerns the covariance between the exponential of a time integral of one Brownian motion and a time integral of a correlated Brownian motion. The answer rewrites each time integral as a stochastic integral with a deterministic weight. These integrals are jointly normally distributed, so their means, variances, and covariance determine the desired expectation.

Using the moment-generating function of a bivariate normal distribution, the response obtains the expectation of the exponential term multiplied by the second integral, then uses the fact that the second integral has zero mean to identify the covariance. The derivation assumes correlated Brownian motions with constant instantaneous correlation and a particular ordering of the integration horizons. A second answer gives a general covariance-integral hint for arbitrary horizons. The accepted derivation contains notation and integration inconsistencies in places, so its stated formula should be checked carefully before reuse.

Key ideas

  • Time integrals of Brownian motion can be expressed as stochastic integrals with deterministic weights.
  • Such integrals are jointly normal when formed from correlated Brownian motions.
  • The bivariate normal moment-generating function can evaluate an exponential-times-linear expectation.
  • A zero-mean second integral makes the covariance equal to the corresponding product expectation.
  • Check the derivation’s limits and notation before applying its stated formula.

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Full text
# Covariance of the product of log normal process and normal procces


# Covariance of the product of log normal process and normal procces












I tried to compute the following covariance : $$Cov(e^{\int_{t}^{T}W^1_sds},\int_{t}^{t+1}W^2_sds)$$

where $W^1_t$ and $W^2_t$ are Brownian motions such that $dW_t^1dW_t^2=\rho dt $

My idea was to use Ito‘s lemma on the process $(e^{\int_{u}^{T}W^1_sds}\int_{u}^{t+1}W^2_sds)_u$ with $u<t$, and then try to find the expectation from the resulting EDP when we take the expectation on both sides of the Ito equation.

But I am not sure if this is working, since the resulting EDP does not have a solution.

Can anyone help me in this regards ? Do you have other ideas on how to compute this covariance ?

Thanks in advance.

## Answer by Kermittfrog (score 3, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/66624

I'll give it a try, but am not yet 100% sure that it's the way to go.

### Ansatz:

Let's find the distribution of the integral of a Brownian motion with respect to time (call it $x$) and find the expectation of the product of two such integrals $x$ and $y$. Then, calculate the covariance as $Cov(x,y)=E(xy)-E(x)E(y)$.

### 1. Distribution of $I(t,T)\equiv\int\limits_{s=t}^{T}W_s\mathrm{d}s$

From this answer, we know that $$ I(t,T)\equiv \int\limits_{s=t}^{T}W_s\mathrm{d}s=\int\limits_{s=t}^{T}(T-s)dW_s $$

and that $I(t,T)$ is normally distributed with $$I(t,T)\sim \mathrm{N}\left(0,\frac{1}{3}(T-t)^3\right)$$

### 2. Expectation of $I(t,T)I(t,U)$

By the same way of reasoning (and some weak recollection of Iso isometry, I'd argue:

$$ \begin{align} \mathrm{E}\left(I(t,T)I(t,U)\right)&=\mathrm{E}\left(\int\limits_{s=t}^{T}(T-s)\mathrm{d}W_s\int\limits_{x=t}^{U}(U-x)\mathrm{d}W_x\right)\\ &=\mathrm{E}\left(\int\limits_{s=t}^{T}\int\limits_{x=t}^{U}(T-s)(U-x)\mathrm{d}W_s\mathrm{d}W_x\right)\\ &=\int\limits_{s=t}^{T}\int\limits_{x=t}^{U}(T-s)(U-x)\mathrm{E}\left(\mathrm{d}W_s\mathrm{d}W_x\right)\\ &=\int\limits_{s=t}^{U}(U-s)^2\rho\mathrm{d}t\\ &=\frac{1}{3}(U-t)^3 \end{align} $$ N.B.: we assume $U\leq T$.

### 3. $I(t,T)$ and $I(t,U)$ are bivariate normally distributed

Let's simplify and let $x_1\equiv I(t,T)$, $x_2\equiv I(t,U)$ and $\mathbf{x}=\left(x_1,x_2\right)^T$, also let $\sigma_1^2=\frac{1}{3}(T-t)^3$, $\sigma_2^2=\frac{1}{3}(U-t)^3$ and $\sigma_{1,2}=\frac{1}{3}\rho (U-t)^3$. Then $\mathbf{x}$ is bivariate normally distributed as

$$ \mathbf{x}\equiv\begin{pmatrix}x_1\\x_2\end{pmatrix}\sim \mathrm{N}\left(\mathbf{0},\begin{pmatrix}\sigma_1^2 & \sigma_{1,2}\\ \sigma_{1,2} & \sigma_2^2\end{pmatrix}\right) $$

### 4. Apply the moment generating function (MGF) trick:

Now let's use a little trick I learned just recently. Given a real vector $\mathbf{t}$, the MGF of the multivariate normal distribution is defined as $\varphi_X(t)\equiv\mathrm{E}\left(e^{\mathbf{t}^T\mathbf{x}}\right)=e^{\mathbf{t}^T\mathbf{\mu}+\frac{1}{2}\mathbf{t}^T\mathbf{\Sigma}\mathbf{t}}$ and, in our case, this is

$$ \varphi(t_1,t_2)=\mathrm{E}\left(e^{t_1x_1+t_2x_2}\right)=e^{\frac{1}{2}t_1^2\sigma_1^2+\frac{1}{2}t_2^2\sigma_2^2+t_1t_2\sigma_{1,2}} $$

Note that

$$ \left.\frac{\partial \left(e^{x+ty}\right)}{\partial t}\right|_{t=0}=ye^x $$

thus,

$$ \begin{align} \mathrm{E}\left(e^{I(t,T)}I(t,U)\right)&=\mathrm{E}\left(e^{x_1}x_2\right)\\ &=\left.\frac{\partial \varphi(t_1=1,t_2)}{\partial t_2}\right|_{t_2=0}\\ &=e^{\frac{1}{2}\sigma_1^2}\sigma_{1,2}\\ &=\frac{1}{3}\rho(U-t)^3e^{\frac{1}{6}(T-t)^3} \end{align}$$

### 5. Putting all together

Thus, for Brownian motions $W^1_t, W_2^t$ with $dW_1dW_2=\rho dt$

$$ \begin{align} \mathrm{Cov}\left(e^{\int\limits_{s=t}^TW^1_s\mathrm{d}s}\int\limits_{x=t}^UW^2_x\mathrm{d}x\right)&=\mathrm{E}\left(e^{x_1}x_2\right)-\mathrm{E}\left(e^{x_1}\right)\mathrm{E}(x_2)\\ &=\mathrm{E}\left(e^{x_1}x_2\right)\\ &=1/3\rho(U-t)^3e^{\frac{1}{6}(T-t)^3} \end{align} $$

## Answer by Kurt G. (score 0)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/66623

Hint (too long for a comment). The integrals $$ X_1:=\int_t^{T_1}W^1_s\,ds\,,\quad\quad X_2:=\int_t^{T_2}W^2_s\,ds $$ are two normals with expectation zero, variances $$ \sigma_i^2=\int_t^{T_i}\int_t^{T_i}\min(u,s)\,du\,ds\quad\quad\text{(can be solved) }\,,\quad\quad i=1,2 $$ and covariance $$ \gamma=\rho\int_t^{T_1}\int_t^{T_2}\min(u,s)\,du\,ds\quad\quad\text{(can be solved). } $$ It should be straightforward to calculate $$ {\rm Cov}(e^{X_1},X_2)\,. $$

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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.