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Deriving the Change-of-Numéraire Conditional Expectation Identity

Article Quant Q&A · Author: athos

Summary

The document explains the conditional-expectation step behind a change of numéraire. It applies Bayes' rule for conditional expectations using the Radon–Nikodym derivative that changes from the money-market measure to the measure associated with a second traded asset. In the product inside the expectation, the second numéraire cancels, leaving the payoff expressed relative to the first numéraire.

The denominator is evaluated by using the martingale property of the ratio of the second asset to the money-market account. Dividing by this conditional density produces the ratio of the two numeraires at the current time, multiplied by the original-measure expectation of the payoff discounted by the first numéraire. The argument then uses the martingale property of the discounted asset to recover its current value. The explanation assumes strictly positive traded numeraires and equivalent measures; it focuses on the algebra and does not discuss market completeness or conditions for integrability.

Key ideas

  • A change of numéraire changes probability measure through a Radon–Nikodym derivative.
  • Conditional Bayes' rule rewrites the expectation under the new measure as a ratio under the original measure.
  • The terminal numéraire cancels when the payoff and density are multiplied.
  • The denominator simplifies using the martingale property of the relative numéraire price.
  • The final identity follows from the martingale property of the asset discounted by the original numéraire.

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# Numéraire -- couldn't understand the wiki explanation


# Numéraire -- couldn't understand the wiki explanation












I'm trying to understand Numéraire concept so am reading the wiki page:

I couldn't understand the last formula's 2nd equation:

$$ E_{Q}\left[\left.\frac{M(0)}{M(T)}\frac{N(T)}{N(0)}\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right]/ E_Q\left[\left.\frac{M(0)}{M(T)}\frac{N(T)}{N(0)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right] = \frac{M(t)}{N(t)}E_{Q}\left[\left.\frac{S(T)}{M(T)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right] $$

Why so? Which part from the left hand side is mapped into $\frac{M(t)}{N(t)}$ and which part mapped to $E_{Q}\left[\left.\frac{S(T)}{M(T)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right] $?

Just for reference, below is copied from the wiki page.

-- begin of wiki >>

In a financial market with traded securities, one may use a change of numéraire to price assets. For instance, if $M(t)=exp(∫_0^t r(s)ds)$ is the price at time $t$ of $\$1$ that was invested in the money market at time $0$, then all assets (say $S(t)$), priced in terms of the money market, are martingales with respect to the risk-neutral measure, (say $Q$). That is $$\frac{S(t)}{M(t)}=E_Q\left[\left.\frac{S_T}{M_T} \right| F_t\right], ∀t≤T$$

Now, suppose that $N(t)>0$ is another strictly positive traded asset (and hence a martingale when priced in terms of the money market). Then, we can define a new probability measure $Q^N$ by the Radon–Nikodym derivative $$\frac{d Q^N}{dQ}=\frac{N_T/N_0}{M_T/M_0}$$

Then, by using the abstract Bayes' Rule it can be shown that $S(t)$ is a martingale under $Q^N$ when priced in terms of the new numéraire, $N(t)$:

$$ E_{Q^N}\left[\left.\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right] $$ $$= E_{Q}\left[\left.\frac{M(0)}{M(T)}\frac{N(T)}{N(0)}\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right]/ E_Q\left[\left.\frac{M(0)}{M(T)}\frac{N(T)}{N(0)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right] $$ $$ = \frac{M(t)}{N(t)}E_{Q}\left[\left.\frac{S(T)}{M(T)}\right| \mathcal{F}(t)\right] = \frac{M(t)}{N(t)}\frac{S(t)}{M(t)} = \frac{S(t)}{N(t)} $$

<< end of wiki--

## Answer by Probilitator (score 8, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/10776

If you are interested in the proof of the Baye's Rule for conditional expectations you can find it here

The sake of completeness:

> The Baye's rule for conditional expectations states $$ E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}]E^P[f|\mathcal{F}]=E^P[Xf|\mathcal{F}] $$ With $f=dQ/dP$ - thus being the Radon-Nikodyn derivative and $X$ being some random variable and $\mathcal{F}$ being some sigma-algebrad.

Now we need to apply that rule to the change of numeraire context. From the Change of Numeraire Theorem we not that $dQ^N/dQ^M$ is given by $$ f=\frac{dQ^N}{dQ^M}=\frac{M(0)N(T)}{M(T)N(0)} $$

In the next step we insert this $f$ into above theorem and also subtitute $X$ for $S(T)/N(T)$

$$ E^{Q^N}\left[\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]E^{Q^M}\left[\frac{M(0)N(T)}{M(T)N(0)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]=E^{Q^M}\left[\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}\frac{M(0)N(T)}{M(T)N(0)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right] $$

$\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}\frac{M(0)N(T)}{M(T)N(0)}$ simplifies to $\frac{S(T)}{M(T)}\frac{M(0)}{N(0)}$.

Now perhaps the crucial step. $N(t)$ is a numeraire and thus a tradeable asset. $M(t)$ is also a numeraire and $Q^M$ is its equivalent measure. Thus $N(t)/M(t)$ is a martingale under $Q^M$. This leads to

$$E^{Q^M}\left[\frac{M(0)N(T)}{M(T)N(0)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]=\frac{M(0)N(t)}{M(t)N(0)}$$

Deviding by this fraction results in

$$ E^{Q^N}\left[\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]=\frac{N(0)M(t)}{N(t)M(0)}E^{Q^M}\left[\frac{S(T)}{M(T)}\frac{M(0)}{N(0)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]= \frac{N(0)M(t)}{N(t)M(0)}\frac{M(0)}{N(0)}E^{Q^M}\left[\frac{S(T)}{M(T)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]$$

This leads to

$$E^{Q^N}\left[\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]=\frac{M(t)}{N(t)}E^{Q^M}\left[\frac{S(T)}{M(T)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]$$

Now we know that $S(t)/M(t)$ is a martingale under $Q^M$. Thus the desired result follows.

$$E^{Q^N}\left[\frac{S(T)}{N(T)}|\mathcal{F}_t\right]=\frac{M(t)S(t)}{N(t)M(t)}$$

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

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