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Self-Financing Cross-Holdings and Correlated Asset Returns

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Michal

Summary

This explanation analyzes a self-financing strategy that holds shares of each of two risky assets in quantities linked to the price of the other asset. It defines the combined asset value as twice the product of the prices and applies multivariate Itô calculus to derive its dynamics. The key accounting distinction is between the change in the product of the prices and the gains earned by the self-financing holdings: their difference is the quadratic covariation term.

When return shocks are uncorrelated, that covariation vanishes, and wealth changes with the product value. With correlated returns, the wealth formula includes an adjustment involving correlation, both volatilities, and the time integral of the combined value. The derivation illustrates how correlation affects portfolio gains even when the holdings are specified simply. It assumes the stated diffusion model and self-financing rule; it does not assess trading frictions, implementation, or empirical performance.

Key ideas

  • Define the combined value as twice the product of the two asset prices.
  • Multivariate Itô calculus adds a covariation term to the product dynamics.
  • Self-financing gains equal the price-weighted changes in holdings, excluding rebalancing costs in the model.
  • Uncorrelated returns eliminate the covariation adjustment.
  • Correlated returns introduce a wealth adjustment proportional to correlation and the integrated combined value.

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# 25657


# investor terminal value of portfolio with two risky assets 1) correlated 2)not correlated $\phi_t^1=S^{2}_{t}, \ \phi_t^2=S^{1}_{t}$












I am analyzing a problem where I have two stocks described by the equations $$ \frac{dS^{1}_{t}}{S^{1}_{t}}=\mu_{1} dt + \sigma_{1} dW^{1}_{t}$$ $$ \frac{dS^{2}_{t}}{S^{2}_{t}}=\mu_{2} dt + \sigma_{2} dW^{2}_{t}$$

where $\rho$ is the correlation between the risky assets.

An investor starts with some capital x and invests in the $\phi_t^1=S^{2}_{t}, \ \phi_t^2=S^{1}_{t}$ strategy. The safe rate is assumed to be zero.

I want to derive the investor wealth $X_t$ in terms of $Y_t$ for two cases

$1) \ \rho=0$ $2) \ \rho \neq 0$

I am getting the following equations for the value of portfolio of the risky assets:

$ Y_{t} = (\phi_t^1 )S^{1}_{t} + (\phi_t^2 )S^{2}_{t} = S^{2}_{t} S^{1}_{t} + S^{1}_{t} S^{2}_{t}$

and

$\frac{dY_t}{Y_t} = \frac{dS^{1}_{t}}{S^{1}_{t}} + \frac{dS^{2}_{t}}{S^{2}_{t}} + \frac{ <S^{1} S^{2}>_t}{S^{1}_{t} S^{1}_{t}}$

My intuition here is that self financing property needs to be applied, so the Xt would be equal to some capital x + end value of risky assets - beg value investment in risky assets and the change in the portfolio would be somehow represent as $dX_t= S_t^1 dS_t^2 + S_t^1 dS_t^2$

I am trying to use the self financing property equation to derive X_t but don't know how to derive the final formulas given in the solutions. I missing some point here, I am stuck. Can anybody explain the how this problem should be analyzed? what should be the starting point and how to proceed further?

the final equations should look like

$1) \rho=0$

$X_t=Y_t - S_0^1 S_0^2 +x $

$2) \ \rho \neq 0$

$dX_t = d(S_t^1 S_t^2) - d\langle S_1, S_2 \rangle_t = \frac{1}{2} dY_t - \frac{1}{2} \rho \sigma_ 1 \sigma_2 Y_tdt$

$X_t=x+ \frac{1}{2} (Y_t -Y_0 - \rho \sigma_ 1 \sigma_2 \int_0^t Y_s ds)$

## Answer by Quantuple (score 1, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/25667

Let $Y_t := 2 S_t^1 S_t^2 $. Applying (multivariate) Itô to the function $f(t,S_t^1,S_t^2)=2 S_t^1 S_t^2$ yields a stochastic differential equation for $Y_t$

$$ \frac{dY_t}{Y_t} = \frac{dS_t^1}{S_t^1} + \frac{dS_t^2}{S_t^2} + \rho \sigma_1 \sigma_2 dt $$

Re-applying Itô's lemma to the function $f(t,Y_t) = \ln(Y_t)$ then yields $$ d\ln Y_t = (\mu_1 + \mu_2 - \frac{\sigma_1^2 + \sigma_2^2}{2}) dt + \sigma_1 dW_t^1 + \sigma_2 dW_t^2 $$

which can be integrated over $[0,T]$ to obtain $$ Y_T = Y_0 e^{(\mu_1+\mu_2-\frac{\sigma_1^2 + \sigma_2^2}{2})T + \sqrt{(\sigma_1^2 + \sigma_2^2 + 2\rho\sigma_1\sigma_2)}\ W_T} $$ where $Y_0 = 2 S_0^1 S_0^2$ and we have replaced $\sigma_1 W_t^1 + \sigma_2 W_t^2$ by $\sqrt{\sigma_1^2 + \sigma_2^2 + \rho \sigma_1 \sigma_2} W_t$ which is a random variable with the exact same distribution (cf. proof here)

Now, assume a self-financing portfolio consisting of holding $S_t^2$ shares of security 1 at time $t$, along with $S_t^1$ shares of security 2: $$X_t := S_t^2 S_t^1 + S_t^1 S_t^2$$ The self-financing conditions gives, over any infinitesimal period of time $$ dX_t = S_t^2 dS_t^1 + S_t^1 dS_t^2$$ which we can rewrite (simple application of multivariate Itô's lemma) $$ dX_t = d(S_t^1 S_t^2) - d\langle S^1 S^2 \rangle_t $$

Now for $\rho=0$ the quadratic variation part is zero, and integrating $$ dX_t = d(S_t^1 S_t^2) $$ over $[0,T]$ yields a final wealth of: \begin{align} X_T &= X_0 + S_T^1 S_T^2 - S_0^1 S_0^2 \\ &= x + \frac{1}{2}(Y_T - Y_0) \end{align}

For $\rho \ne 0$ we write $dX_t = d(S_t^1 S_t^2) - d\langle S^1 S^2 \rangle_t $ as $$ dX_t = \frac{1}{2} dY_t - \frac{1}{2} \rho \sigma_1 \sigma_2 Y_t dt $$ and integrate over $[0,T]$ to obtain $$ X_T = x + \frac{1}{2} (Y_T - Y_0) - \frac{1}{2} \rho \sigma_1 \sigma_2 \int_0^T Y_t dt $$ Note that by setting $\rho = 0$ in the above we fall-back on the previous 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.