The maximum maximum of a martingale with given $n$ marginals

Abstract

We obtain bounds on the distribution of the maximum of a martingale with fixed marginals at finitely many intermediate times. The bounds are sharp and attained by a solution to $n$-marginal Skorokhod embedding problem in Ob{\l}\'oj and Spoida [An iterated Az\'ema-Yor type embedding for finitely many marginals (2013) Preprint]. It follows that their embedding maximizes the maximum among all other embeddings. Our motivating problem is superhedging lookback options under volatility uncertainty for an investor allowed to dynamically trade the underlying asset and statically trade European call options for all possible strikes and finitely-many maturities. We derive a pathwise inequality which induces the cheapest superhedging value, which extends the two-marginals pathwise inequality of Brown, Hobson and Rogers [Probab. Theory Related Fields 119 (2001) 558-578]. This inequality, proved by elementary arguments, is derived by following the stochastic control approach of Galichon, Henry-Labord\`ere and Touzi [Ann. Appl. Probab. 24 (2014) 312-336].Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AAP1084 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org