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Risk-Neutral Pricing and Numeraire Changes for Multi-Asset Claims

Article Quant Q&A · Author: PTQuoc

Summary

The document raises questions about risk-neutral dynamics for two correlated risky assets and for a claim defined as their sum. It proposes adding the assets’ stochastic differentials, then asks whether dividing by the claim value implies that its drift must equal the short rate. It also sketches a change of measure associated with using another asset as numeraire.

The material is a question rather than a resolved derivation, so it does not establish the proposed equations. In particular, the volatility of a sum must be derived by expressing each asset’s diffusion in the common Brownian motion and weighting by its value; it is not generally the unweighted sum of volatilities divided by the claim value. The risk-neutral drift property applies to appropriately discounted traded assets under the chosen numeraire, and changing numeraire requires the corresponding measure-change adjustment. The document supplies no worked correction or numerical evidence, making it useful mainly as a prompt to examine these distinctions.

Key ideas

  • The example asks whether the sum of two risky assets has the risk-free drift under a risk-neutral measure.
  • Diffusion terms for a portfolio must account for each asset’s value and exposure to the underlying Brownian drivers.
  • A claim’s discounted value has a martingale property only under the relevant pricing measure and numeraire assumptions.
  • A numeraire change requires a consistent change of measure and drift adjustment.
  • The document poses these issues but does not provide a complete derivation or answer.

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Full text
# Risk neutral measure & change in numeraire


# Risk neutral measure & change in numeraire












There are two questions about risk neutral and change in numeraire I am not so sure if my answer is correct.

Question 01: Risk neutral

Let says I have 2 risky asset A and B. Each has stochastics process as follow:

\begin{align} \frac{dA}{A}=\mu_Adt + \sigma_Adw \\ \frac{dB}{B}=\mu_Bdt + \sigma_Bdw \end{align}

Under risk neutral process $\mathbb{Q}$ we have:

\begin{align} \frac{dA}{A}=r_tdt + \sigma_Adw^{\mathbb{Q}} \\ \frac{dB}{B}=r_tdt + \sigma_Bdw^{\mathbb{Q}} \end{align}

Let say I have some financial product f which is a function of A and B. For simplicity, let f = A + B. Then I wondering if the following is correct or not?

\begin{align} df & = dA + dB\\ df & = r_tAdt + \sigma_AAdw^{\mathbb{Q}} + r_tBdt + \sigma_BBdw^{\mathbb{Q}} \\ & = r_t(A+B)dt + (\sigma_A + \sigma_B)dw^{\mathbb{Q}} \\ \end{align}

Divide both RHS and LHS for f, we have: \begin{align} \frac{df}{f} = r_t \frac{A+B}{f}dt+ \frac{\sigma_A + \sigma_B}{f}dw^{\mathbb{Q}} \end{align}

By now, because $\frac{df}{f}$ stochastics process are under risk neutral measure $\mathbb{Q}$ hence, we can derive PDE that:

\begin{align} r_t \frac{A+B}{f}dt & = r_t dt \\ A + B - f & = 0 \end{align}

I don't know if my argument above is correct. If not please help me indicate if there is anything wrong anywhere?

Question 02: Change in numeraire

I use financal product $f$ above for continuing example. Let say, if I want to derive the stochastic process of $\frac{df}{f}$ under new measure $\mathbb{R}$ in which, the stochastic process of $R$ is:

$$dR = \mu_R dt + \sigma_R dw$$

Then I must change $dR$ into form $\frac{dR}{R}$ which is:

\begin{align} \frac{dR}{R} & = \frac{\mu_R}{R} dt + \frac{\sigma_R}{R} dw \\ & = r_t dt + \frac{\sigma_R}{R} dw^{\mathbb{Q}} \end{align}

Then back to our goal, the price of risk for stochastic process of $\frac{df}{f}$ under new measure $\mathbb{R}$.

\begin{align} \Theta^{\mathbb{R}} & = - \frac{\sigma_R}{R} \\ \frac{df}{f} & = \left[ \frac{r_t(A+B)}{f} + \frac{\sigma_R}{R} \frac{\sigma_A + \sigma_B}{f} \right]dt + \frac{\sigma_A + \sigma_B}{f} dw^{\mathbb{R}} \\ \end{align}

And if my arugment in Question 01 is correct then, stochastic process can be simplified into:

$$\frac{df}{f} = \left[ r_t + \frac{\sigma_R}{R} \frac{\sigma_A + \sigma_B}{f} \right]dt + \frac{\sigma_A + \sigma_B}{f} dw^{\mathbb{R}} $$

Are my two arguments for two questions above are right? If there is anything wrong I hope I can get help from you guys

Thank you

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.