Risk-Neutral Drift Adjustment for a Compound Poisson Jump-Diffusion
Summary
The document derives the drift restrictions for an asset modeled as a diffusion multiplied by a compound Poisson jump component. Under a risk-neutral measure with constant interest rate and no dividends, the discounted asset price must be a martingale. Taking expectations and using independence between Brownian motion and jumps separates the continuous and jump contributions.
The derivation sets the continuous drift parameter equal to the risk-free rate. It then evaluates the jump multiplier’s expectation using the Poisson distribution and the exponential moment of an individual jump, which determines the compensating jump drift. This requires the relevant exponential moment to exist. The result applies to the stated constant-rate, no-dividend model and assumes the given jump intensity and jump-size law are under the risk-neutral measure; it does not address how to choose or calibrate that measure from market data. The document presents a pricing condition, not empirical evidence that a particular jump model fits observed returns.
Key ideas
- Risk-neutral pricing requires the discounted asset price to be a martingale.
- For the stated model, the continuous drift must match the risk-free rate.
- The jump drift compensates for the expected exponential jump multiplier.
- The adjustment depends on the jump-size exponential moment being finite.
- The derivation assumes constant rates, no dividends, and independent diffusion and jump components.
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Full text
# Risk neutral measure for jump processes
# Risk neutral measure for jump processes
Assume we model the dynamics of a tradable asset as follows $$ S_t = S_0 \exp\left[\sigma W_t +(\alpha-\beta\lambda-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)t+J_t \right] $$ where $W_t$ is a standard Brownian motion independent from $J_t = \sum_{i=1}^{N_t} Y_i$ a compound Poisson process.
What conditions should $\alpha$ and $\beta$ verify for this dynamics to be a valid risk-neutral dynamics?
## Answer by Quantuple (score 11)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/29883
Assume a constant risk-free rate $r$ and no dividends. Generalisation is straightforward.
To preclude arbitrage opportunities, under the risk-neutral measure $\Bbb{Q}$, the discounted asset price process should be a $\Bbb{Q}$-martingale i.e. $$ S_0 = \Bbb{E}^\Bbb{Q}_0 \left[ e^{-rt} S_t \right] \iff \Bbb{E}^\Bbb{Q}_0 \left[ S_t \right] = S_0 \exp(rt) \tag{1} $$
Now, rewriting your equation as \begin{align} S_t &= S_0 \exp(\alpha t) \mathcal{E}(\sigma W_t) \exp(-\beta \lambda t + J_t) \end{align} where $ J_t = \sum_{i=1}^{N_t} Y_i $ denotes a compound Poisson process with $\{Y_i\}_{i=1}^\infty$ i.i.d. random variables and $N_t$ a Poisson process of intensity $\lambda$, and taking the expectation under $\Bbb{Q}$ bearing in mind that the Wiener process is independent from the compound Poisson process yields \begin{align} \Bbb{E}_0^\Bbb{Q} [S_t] &= S_0 \exp(\alpha t) \exp(-\beta \lambda t ) \Bbb{E}_0^\Bbb Q[\exp(J_t)] \tag{2} \end{align}
Comparing the above expressions, we see that $(1)$ is consistent with $(2)$ if and only if $ \alpha = r $ and $ \beta $ is such that $ \Bbb{E}_0^\Bbb{Q}[ \exp(J_t) ] = \exp(\beta \lambda t ) $
Evaluating $\Bbb{E}_0^\Bbb{Q}[ \exp(J_t) ]$ gives \begin{align} \Bbb{E}_0^\Bbb{Q}[ \exp(J_t) ] &= \Bbb{E}_0^\Bbb{Q} \left[ \exp \left(\sum_{i=1}^{N_t} Y_i\right) \right] \\ &= \Bbb{E}_0^\Bbb{Q} \left[ \Bbb{E}_t^\Bbb{Q} \left[ \exp \left(\sum_{i=1}^{N_t} Y_i\right) \right] \right] \\ &= \sum_{n=0}^\infty \Bbb{E} \left[ \exp\left(\sum_{i=1}^n Y_i\right) \right] \Bbb{Q}(N_t = n) \\ &= \sum_{n=0}^\infty \prod_{i=1}^n \Bbb{E} \left[\exp(Y_i) \right] \Bbb{Q}(N_t = n) \\ &= \sum_{n=0}^\infty \left( \Bbb{E} \left[ \exp(Y_1) \right] \right)^n \Bbb{Q}(N_t = n) \\ &= e^{-\lambda t} \sum_{n=0}^\infty \left( \Bbb{E} \left[ \exp(Y_1) \right] \right)^n \frac{(\lambda t)^n}{n!} \\ &= \exp \left(\Bbb{E} \left[ \exp(Y_1) \right] - 1)\lambda t \right) \end{align} thereby showing that, under $\Bbb{Q}$, it is enough that $$ \alpha = r,\ \ \beta = \Bbb{E} \left[ \exp(Y_1) \right] - 1 $$ to preclude arbitrage opportunities.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.