Deriving LIBOR Market Model Drifts Under the Risk-Neutral Measure
Summary
The document asks how forward LIBOR rates evolve under the risk-neutral measure, starting from their martingale dynamics under a forward measure. The questioner attempts a change-of-numeraire derivation using a bond as numeraire, applies Girsanov’s theorem, and proposes a drift for the forward rate. The accepted answer sets out the measure change more carefully using the bond’s drift and volatility, then obtains the corresponding Brownian motion under the risk-neutral measure.
The resulting relation gives the risk-neutral drift of a forward LIBOR rate as the negative product of its volatility and the volatility of the associated bond, alongside its diffusion term. This illustrates how a rate that is a martingale under its own forward measure acquires drift under a different measure. The exchange is a compact derivation rather than a full specification of an LMM: it does not cover multi-rate correlations, calibration, or model validation, and the initial attempted derivation contains errors that the answer corrects.
Key ideas
- A forward LIBOR rate is modeled as a martingale under its associated forward measure.
- Changing to the risk-neutral measure shifts the Brownian motion according to the bond volatility.
- The forward-rate drift under the risk-neutral measure is the negative product of rate volatility and bond volatility.
- The derivation relies on the numeraire bond’s assumed drift and volatility.
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Full text
# Libor Market Model (LMM) under risk neutral measure
# Libor Market Model (LMM) under risk neutral measure
I would like to establish the equations of forward libors under risk neutral measure. Here is how I do it, and what I get :
Under the $P_{T_j} $ measure, forward Libor $L_j$ is martingale. Thus:
$$ dL_j = L_j \times \sigma_j(t) \times dW^{T_j} $$
The change of numéraire implies that:
$$ \frac{dQ^{T_j}}{dQ^*} = \frac{P(t,T)\times\exp{\left(-\int_0^T{r(s)ds}\right)}}{P(0,T)} $$
Under $Q^*$, $P(t,T)$ discounted is martingale, which means that:
$$ \frac{dP(t,T)}{P(t,T)} = r(t) dt + \eta(t) dW^* $$
Solving this gives:
$$ P(t,T) = P(0,T) \times \exp\left(\int_0^T\left(r(s)-\frac{1}{2} \eta(s)^2\right)ds + \int_0^T{\eta(s)}dW^{T_j}\right) $$
Thus:
$$ \frac{dQ^{T_j}}{dQ^*} = \exp\left(-\int_0^T{\frac{1}{2}} \eta(s)^2ds + \int_0^T{\eta(s)}dW^{T_j}\right) $$
Girsanov shows that:
$$ dW^{T_j} = dW^* - \eta(t) dt $$
Under $Q^*$:
$$ \frac{dL_j}{L_j} = \alpha(t) dt + \sigma_j(t) dW^{*} $$
Writing $P(t,T) $ as $\exp(-\int_t^T{f(t,s)ds}) = \exp(Y_t)$:
$$ \frac{dP(t,T)}{P(t,T)} = dY_t +\frac{1}{2}<Y_t>dt $$
with $ dY_t = f(t,t) dt -\int_t^T{\alpha(t) dt ds } - \int_t^T{\sigma(t)dt dW_s}$. Identifying, I conclude that:
$$ \eta(t) = \sigma(t) $$
Finally:
$$ dL_j(t) = -L_j(t) \sigma_j(t) \int_t^{T_j}{\sigma_j(s)ds} dt + L_j\sigma_j(t) dW^*.$$
Is it correct ?
## Answer by Gordon (score 2, accepted)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/41622
We assume that, under the $T_j$-forward probability measure $P_{T_j}$, \begin{align*} \frac{dP(t, T_j)}{P(t, T_j)} = \mu_P(t, T_j) dt + \sigma_P(t, T_j) dW_t^{T_j}, \end{align*} where $\mu_P(t, T_j)$ and $\sigma_P(t, T_j)$ are the respective drift and volatility functions. Let $Q$ be the risk-neutral probability measure. Then \begin{align*} \frac{dQ}{dP_{T_j}}\big|_t &= \frac{e^{\int_0^t r_s ds}P(0, T_j)}{P(t, T_j)}\\ &=e^{\int_0^t \big(r_s -\mu_P(s, T_j)+\frac{1}{2} \sigma_P(s, T_j)^2 \big) ds - \int_0^t \sigma_P(s, T_j) dW_s^{T_j}}. \end{align*} Since $\frac{dQ}{dP_{T_j}}\big|_t$ is a martingale under $P_{T_j}$, \begin{align*} \int_0^t \Big(r_s -\mu_P(s, T_j)+\frac{1}{2} \sigma_P(s, T_j)^2 \Big) ds = -\frac{1}{2}\int_0^t \sigma_P(s, T_j)^2 ds. \end{align*} That is, \begin{align*} \mu_P(t, T_j) = r_t + \sigma_P(t, T_j)^2, \end{align*} and \begin{align*} \frac{dQ}{dP_{T_j}}\big|_t &= e^{-\frac{1}{2} \int_0^t\sigma_P(s, T_j)^2 ds - \int_0^t \sigma_P(s, T_j) dW_s^{T_j}}. \end{align*} Then, under the risk-neutral probability measure $Q$, $\{W_t, \, t \ge 0\}$, where, for $t \ge 0$, \begin{align*} W_t = W_t^{T_j} + \int_0^t \sigma_P(s, T_j) ds, \end{align*} is a standard Brownian motion. Moreover, \begin{align*} \frac{dL_j}{L_j} = -\sigma_j(t) \sigma_P(t, T_j) dt + \sigma_j(t) d W_t. \end{align*}Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)
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