We revisit Föllmer's concept of quadratic variation of a càdlàg function along a sequence of time partitions and discuss its relation with the Skorokhod topology. We show that in order to obtain a robust notion of pathwise quadratic variation applicable to sample paths of càdlàg processes, one must reformulate the definition of pathwise quadratic variation as a limit in Skorokhod topology of discrete approximations along the partition. One then obtains a simpler definition which implies the Lebesgue decomposition of the pathwise quadratic variation as a result, rather than requiring it as an extra condition.
We construct a new topology on the space of stopped paths and introduce a calculus for causal functionals on generic domains of this space. We propose a generic approach to pathwise integration without any assumption on the variation index of a path and obtain functional change of variable formulae which extend the results of Föllmer [Séminaire de probabilités 15 (1981), 143–150] and Cont and Fournié [J. Funct. Anal. 259 (2010), no. 4, 1043–1072] to a larger class of functionals, including Föllmer's pathwise integrals. We show that a class of smooth functionals possess a pathwise analogue of the martingale property. For paths that possess finite quadratic variation, our approach extends the Föllmer–Ito calculus and removes previous restriction on the time partition sequence. We introduce a foliation structure on this path space and show that harmonic functionals may be represented as pathwise integrals of closed 1‐forms.
We present a pathwise approach to continuous-time finance based on causal functional calculus. Our framework does not rely on any probabilistic concept. We introduce a definition of continuous-time self-financing portfolios, which does not rely on any integration concept and show that the value of a self-financing portfolio belongs to a class of nonanticipative functionals, which are pathwise analogs of martingales. We show that if the set of market scenarios is generic in the sense of being stable under certain operations, such selffinancing strategies do not give rise to arbitrage. We then consider the problem of hedging a path-dependent payoff across a generic set of scenarios. Applying the transition principle of Rufus Isaacs in differential games, we obtain a pathwise dynamic programming principle for the superhedging cost. We show that the superhedging cost is characterized as the solution of a pathdependent equation. For the Asian option, we obtain an explicit solution.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.