Superreplication under Model Uncertainty in Discrete Time

We study the superreplication of contingent claims under model uncertainty in discrete time. We show that optimal superreplicating strategies exist in a general measure-theoretic setting; moreover, we characterize the minimal superreplication price as the supremum over all continuous linear pricing functionals on a suitable Banach space. The main ingredient is a closedness result for the set of claims which can be superreplicated from zero capital; its proof relies on medial limits.Comment: 14 pages; forthcoming in 'Finance and Stochastics

Robust Superhedging with Jumps and Diffusion

We establish a nondominated version of the optional decomposition theorem in a setting that includes jump processes with nonvanishing diffusion as well as general continuous processes. This result is used to derive a robust superhedging duality and the existence of an optimal superhedging strategy for general contingent claims. We illustrate the main results in the framework of nonlinear L\'evy processes.Comment: Forthcoming in 'Stochastic Processes and their Applications

Utility Maximization under Model Uncertainty in Discrete Time

We give a general formulation of the utility maximization problem under nondominated model uncertainty in discrete time and show that an optimal portfolio exists for any utility function that is bounded from above. In the unbounded case, integrability conditions are needed as nonexistence may arise even if the value function is finite.Comment: 18 page

The Opportunity Process for Optimal Consumption and Investment with Power Utility

We study the utility maximization problem for power utility random fields in a semimartingale financial market, with and without intermediate consumption. The notion of an opportunity process is introduced as a reduced form of the value process of the resulting stochastic control problem. We show how the opportunity process describes the key objects: optimal strategy, value function, and dual problem. The results are applied to obtain monotonicity properties of the optimal consumption.Comment: 24 pages, forthcoming in 'Mathematics and Financial Economics

Random G-expectations

We construct a time-consistent sublinear expectation in the setting of volatility uncertainty. This mapping extends Peng's G-expectation by allowing the range of the volatility uncertainty to be stochastic. Our construction is purely probabilistic and based on an optimal control formulation with path-dependent control sets.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AAP885 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Risk Aversion Asymptotics for Power Utility Maximization

We consider the economic problem of optimal consumption and investment with power utility. We study the optimal strategy as the relative risk aversion tends to infinity or to one. The convergence of the optimal consumption is obtained for general semimartingale models while the convergence of the optimal trading strategy is obtained for continuous models. The limits are related to exponential and logarithmic utility. To derive these results, we combine approaches from optimal control, convex analysis and backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs).Comment: 45 page

The Bellman equation for power utility maximization with semimartingales

We study utility maximization for power utility random fields with and without intermediate consumption in a general semimartingale model with closed portfolio constraints. We show that any optimal strategy leads to a solution of the corresponding Bellman equation. The optimal strategies are described pointwise in terms of the opportunity process, which is characterized as the minimal solution of the Bellman equation. We also give verification theorems for this equation.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AAP776 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Superreplication under Volatility Uncertainty for Measurable Claims

We establish the duality-formula for the superreplication price in a setting of volatility uncertainty which includes the example of "random G-expectation." In contrast to previous results, the contingent claim is not assumed to be quasi-continuous.Comment: 16 pages; forthcoming in 'Electronic Journal of Probability

Stochastic Target Games and Dynamic Programming via Regularized Viscosity Solutions

We study a class of stochastic target games where one player tries to find a strategy such that the state process almost-surely reaches a given target, no matter which action is chosen by the opponent. Our main result is a geometric dynamic programming principle which allows us to characterize the value function as the viscosity solution of a non-linear partial differential equation. Because abstract mea-surable selection arguments cannot be used in this context, the main obstacle is the construction of measurable almost-optimal strategies. We propose a novel approach where smooth supersolutions are used to define almost-optimal strategies of Markovian type, similarly as in ver-ification arguments for classical solutions of Hamilton--Jacobi--Bellman equations. The smooth supersolutions are constructed by an exten-sion of Krylov's method of shaken coefficients. We apply our results to a problem of option pricing under model uncertainty with different interest rates for borrowing and lending.Comment: To appear in MO

Optimal stopping under adverse nonlinear expectation and related games

We study the existence of optimal actions in a zero-sum game $\inf_{\tau}\sup_PE^P[X_{\tau}]$ between a stopper and a controller choosing a probability measure. This includes the optimal stopping problem $\inf_{\tau}\mathcal{E}(X_{\tau})$ for a class of sublinear expectations $\mathcal{E}(\cdot)$ such as the $G$-expectation. We show that the game has a value. Moreover, exploiting the theory of sublinear expectations, we define a nonlinear Snell envelope $Y$ and prove that the first hitting time $\inf\{t:Y_t=X_t\}$ is an optimal stopping time. The existence of a saddle point is shown under a compactness condition. Finally, the results are applied to the subhedging of American options under volatility uncertainty.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AAP1054 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org