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Risk-Neutral Drift for Additive and Multiplicative Asset Models

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Jane

Summary

The document asks how the equivalent martingale measure changes when an asset follows an arithmetic Brownian motion with an additive drift, rather than a geometric Brownian motion whose drift multiplies the price. It frames the issue using a bank-account numeraire that grows at the risk-free rate.

The answer applies the martingale condition to the discounted asset price. Under the risk-neutral measure, the asset’s drift must be the risk-free rate times its current price, regardless of whether the original model used additive or multiplicative dynamics. It also explains that the change-of-measure adjustment differs between the two models: for additive dynamics, the adjustment depends on the current asset price. The response gives stochastic differential equations and density expressions, but does not discuss conditions ensuring the change of measure is valid or address broader market incompleteness and model assumptions.

Key ideas

  • With a bank-account numeraire, the discounted tradable asset price must be a martingale under the risk-neutral measure.
  • The risk-neutral drift of the asset price is the risk-free rate multiplied by its current value.
  • The measure-change adjustment differs between additive and multiplicative price dynamics.
  • For additive dynamics, the required adjustment depends on the asset price.

Tags

Full text
# What is the martingale measure requirement when $\mu(t,S(t)) = \mu(t)$?


# What is the martingale measure requirement when $\mu(t,S(t)) = \mu(t)$?












It is known that if the numeraire is the bank account, then the martingale measure is determined by the fact that every asset has $r$ as its local rate of return.

However, the local rate of return is the "multiplier" of the stock price in the dt-term of the SDE. That is, if $$dS_t = S_t\alpha dt + S_t\sigma dW$$ then $\alpha$ is the local rate of return, which must be equal to $r$ under the martingale measure.

However, imagine if under the $P$-measure, $S_t$ satisfied the SDE$$dS_t = \alpha dt + \sigma dW,$$ in this case, what is the equivalent martingale measure requirement?

## Answer by Quantuple (score 4)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/32656

Let $B_t$ denote the $t$-value of a riskless money market account in which 1 unit of currency has been invested at time $t=0$. We have $B_t = e^{rt}$, where $B_t$ solves $$dB_t = B_trdt,\quad B_0=1 \tag{0} $$

If $S_t$ represents the $t$-value of a tradable asset, then in the absence of arbitrage opportunity we must have that (fundamental theorem of asset pricing): $$ \frac{S_t}{B_t} \text{ is a } \Bbb{Q} \text{-martingale} $$ in other words \begin{align} d\left(\frac{S_t}{B_t}\right) &= \frac{dS_t}{B_t} - \frac{S_t}{B_t^2} dB_t + 0 \tag{Itô} \\ &= \frac{1}{B_t} \left( dS_t - S_t r dt \right) \tag{using $(0)$} \\ &= \dots dW_t^\Bbb{Q} \tag{1} \end{align} by the martingale representation theorem.

Note that for $(1)$ to hold it is necessary to have: $$ dS_t = \color{blue}{rS_t} dt + \dots dW_t^\Bbb{Q} $$ This is the equivalent martingale measure requirement you're looking for.

Now, to reach that $rS_t$ drift under $\Bbb{Q}$, you shall not use the same Girsanov kernel depending on whether $S_t$ follows a GBM or an ABM under $\Bbb{P}$ but that's another question.

In the first case you'll have: $$dS_t = \alpha S_t dt + \sigma S_t dW_t^\Bbb{P} \to dS_t = \color{blue}{rS_t} dt + \sigma S_t dW_t^\Bbb{Q} $$ with $$\left. \frac{d\Bbb{Q}}{d\Bbb{P}} \right\vert_{\mathcal{F}_t} = \mathcal{E}\left[ -\lambda W_t^\Bbb{P}\right], \quad \lambda=\frac{\alpha-r}{\sigma}$$ In the second: $$dS_t = \alpha dt + \sigma dW_t^\Bbb{P} \to dS_t = \color{blue}{rS_t} dt + \sigma dW_t^\Bbb{Q} $$ with $$\left. \frac{d\Bbb{Q}}{d\Bbb{P}} \right\vert_{\mathcal{F}_t} = \mathcal{E}\left[ -\lambda W_t^\Bbb{P}\right], \quad \lambda=\frac{\alpha-rS_t}{\sigma}$$ See this paper if you want more mathematical details.

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.