Let us consider the 1-dimensional case (n=1) of the Stochastic Equation (4) from the last post
\begin{equation}\label{eq:sd3}dX=b(X)dt+dW\end{equation} with X(0)=0.
Let u: \mathbb{R}\longrightarrow\mathbb{R} be a smooth function and Y(t)=u(X(t)) (t\geq 0). What we learned in calculus (the chain rule) would dictate us that dY is
dY=u’dX=u’bdt+u’dW,
where ’=\frac{d}{dx}. It may come to you as a surprise to hear this but this is not correct. First by Taylor series expansion we obtain
\begin{align*}
dY&=u’dX+\frac{1}{2}u^{\prime\prime}(dX)^2+\cdots\\
&=u'(bdt+dW)+\frac{1}{2}u^{\prime\prime}(bdt+dW)^2+\cdots
\end{align*}
Now we introduce the following striking formula
\begin{equation}\label{eq:wiener2}(dW)^2=dt\end{equation}
The proof of \eqref{eq:wiener2} is beyond the scope of this notes and so it won’t be given now or ever. However it can be found, for example, in [2]. Using \eqref{eq:wiener2} dY can be written as
dY=\left(u’b+\frac{1}{2}u^{\prime\prime}\right)dt+u’dW+\cdots
The terms beyond u’dW are of order (dt)^{\frac{3}{2}} and higher. Neglecting these terms, we have
\begin{equation}\label{eq:sd4}dY=\left(u’b+\frac{1}{2}u^{\prime\prime}\right)dt+u’dW\end{equation}
\eqref{eq:sd4} is the stochastic differential equation satisfied by Y(t) and it is called the Itô’s Formula named after a Japanese mathematician Kiyosi Itô.
Example. Let us consider the stochastic differential equation
\begin{equation}\label{eq:sd5}dY=YdW,\ Y(0)=1\end{equation}
Comparing \eqref{eq:sd4} and \eqref{eq:sd5}, we obtain
\begin{align}\label{eq:sd5a}
u’b+\frac{1}{2}u^{\prime\prime}&=0\\\label{eq:sd5b}u’&=u\end{align}
The equation \eqref{eq:sd5b} along with the initial condition Y(0)=1 results u(X(t))=e^{X(t)}. Using this u with equation \eqref{eq:sd5a} we get b=-\frac{1}{2} and so the equation \eqref{eq:sd3} becomes
dX=-\frac{1}{2}dt+dW
in which case X(t)=-\frac{1}{2}t+W(t). Hence, we find Y(t) as
Y(t)=e^{-\frac{1}{2}t+W(t)}
Example. Let P(t) denote the price of a stock at time t\geq 0. A standard model assumes that the relative change of price \frac{dP}{P} evolves according to the stochastic differential equation
\begin{equation}\label{eq:relprice}\frac{dP}{P}=\mu dt+\sigma dW\end{equation}
where \mu>0 and \sigma are constants called the drift and the volatility of the stock, respectively. Again using Itô’s formula similarly to what we did in the previous example, we find the price function P(t) which is the solution of
dP=\mu Pdt+\sigma PdW,\ P(0)=p_0
as
P(t)=p_0\exp\left[\left(\mu-\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2\right)\right]t+\sigma W(t).
References:
1. Lawrence C. Evans, An Introduction to Stochastic Differential Equations, Lecture Notes
2. Bernt Øksendal, Stochastic Differential Equations, An Introduction with Applications, 5th Edition, Springer, 2000