Expected Value of a Mean-Reverting Process with Poisson Jumps
Summary
The document derives the expected value of a process that decays toward zero between jumps, with jump sizes arriving according to a Poisson process. It compares an integral-based expectation with an attempted calculation using the jump-time sum. The key correction is conditional: given the total number of arrivals by time t, their ordered arrival times do not have the unconditional Gamma distribution. The Gamma model assigns positive probability to times beyond t, which is incompatible with conditioning on arrivals having occurred within the interval.
Conditioned on the count, the arrival times are distributed as ordered uniform points on the interval. Using the uniform moment-generating function for the exponential term recovers the expected-value expression stated in the question. This is a probability-conditioning result rather than a trading strategy, and the derivation assumes a constant-intensity Poisson process and independent, identically distributed jump sizes. It does not address parameter estimation or applications to market data.
Key ideas
- The jump process consists of exponential decay between Poisson arrivals and random jump sizes.
- Unconditional arrival times have Gamma distributions, but that law does not apply after conditioning on the count within a fixed interval.
- Given the number of arrivals by time t, the ordered arrival times come from uniform points on the interval.
- Using the conditional uniform distribution resolves the mismatch in the expectation calculation.
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# Expected Value of Mean-Reverting Jump Process
# Expected Value of Mean-Reverting Jump Process
I cant see the link between my method of calculation and the method done in the book Cartea and Jaimungal (Algorithmic and High Frequency Trading, page 220.) We have a mean-reverting process $$d\mu_t=-k\mu_tdt+\eta_{1+N_{t^-}}dN_t$$ which has solution $$\begin{align}\mu_t&=e^{-kt}\mu_0+\int^t_0e^{-k(t-u)}\eta_{1+N_{u^-}}dN_u \\&=e^{-kt}\mu_0+\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} e^{-k(t-\tau_m)}\eta_m. \end{align}$$ where $N_t$ is a Poisson process with intensity $\lambda$ and $\eta_i$ are i.i.d. and independent of $N_t$, $k>0$ and $\tau_m$ denote the Poisson arrival times.
Now they calculate the expected value via the integral to achieve $$\mathbb{E}[\mu_t]=e^{-kt}\mu_0+\frac{\lambda}{k}\mathbb{E}[\eta_1](1-e^{-kt}).$$
I try to do the same via the summation definition which isn't quite working.
The arrival times are Gamma($m,\lambda$) distributed and the MGF of a Gamma r.v. $X$ gives $\mathbb{E}[e^{kX}]=(\frac{\lambda}{\lambda-k})^m$.
Hence, $$\begin{align} e^{kt}\mathbb{E}[\mu_t] -\mu_0 &= \mathbb{E}\bigg[\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} e^{k\tau_m}\eta_m\bigg]\\ &= \mathbb{E}\bigg[\mathbb{E}\bigg[\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} e^{k\tau_m}\eta_m\bigg]|N_t\bigg]\\ &= \mathbb{E}\bigg[\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} \mathbb{E}\Big[e^{k\tau_m}\Big]\mathbb{E}\Big[\eta_m\Big]|N_t\bigg]\\ &= \mathbb{E}\Big[\eta_1\Big] \cdot \mathbb{E}\bigg[\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} \mathbb{E}\Big[e^{k\tau_m}\Big]|N_t\bigg] \end{align}$$
Now if I substitute the result for the MGF of a gamma function into this and work out the geometric sum, I find that I don't get the correct answer. I am certain the the geometric summation and MGF steps are correct and the final step after this would be to work out the unconditional expectation of the Poisson process, but I believe there must be an error somewhere here, as the other steps seem fine.
For completeness, the geometric sum becomes $$\frac{\lambda}{k}\bigg(1-\Big(\frac{\lambda}{\lambda-k}\Big)^{N_t}\bigg)$$ and so the terms from the Poisson process do not match up nicely. Strangely, if this product were to be $\frac{\lambda}{k}\bigg(1-\Big(\frac{\lambda}{\lambda+k}\Big)^{-N_t}\bigg)$ I think it works, but I cannot find any reason to support where this comes from. Any help on this would be fantastic.
## Answer by S.Surace (score 3, accepted)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/54743
First, we need to be careful about putting the condition at the right place:
\begin{align} e^{kt}\mathbb{E}[\mu_t] -\mu_0 &= \mathbb{E}\bigg[\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} e^{k\tau_m}\eta_m\bigg]\\ &= \mathbb{E}\bigg[\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} \mathbb{E}\bigg[e^{k\tau_m}\eta_m|N_t\bigg]\bigg]\\ &=\mathbb{E}\Big[\eta_1\Big] \cdot \mathbb{E}\bigg[\sum_{m=1}^{N_t} \mathbb{E}\Big[e^{k\tau_m}|N_t\Big]\bigg]. \end{align} Now the distribution of $\tau_m$ given $N_t$ is not Gamma, but uniform between $0$ and $t$. It cannot be Gamma because this would have a finite probability that $\tau_m>t$. Because of this, and by noting that the MGF of a uniform random variable between $0$ and $t$ is $\frac{e^{kt}-1}{kt}$, we obtain the desired result.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.