Problems arising in Finance have become a significant source of new developments in Stochastic Analysis. We discuss some recent case studies, in particular some decomposition and representation theorems which are motivated by problems of hedging derivatives and of intertemporal consumption choice.

Let Q be the set of equivalent martingale measures for a given process S, and let X be a process which is a local supermartingale with respect to any measure in Q. The optional decomposition theorem for X states that there exists a predictable integrand ф such that the difference X−ф•S is...

We provide a framework for the analysis of term structures of credit spreads on corporate bonds in the presence of informational asymmetries. While bond investors observe default incidents, we suppose that they have incomplete information on the firm's assets and/or the threshold asset level at...

We propose a model of correlated multi-firm default with incomplete information. While public bond investors observe issuers' assets and defaults, we suppose that they are not informed about the threshold asset level at which a firm is liquidated. Bond investors form instead a prior on these...

The market for derivatives with payoffs contingent on the credit quality of a number of reference entities has grown considerably over recent years. The risk analysis and valuation of such multi-name structures often relies on simulating the performance of the underlying credits. In this paper...

Credit contagion refers to the propagation of economic distress from one firm or sovereign government to another. In this paper we model credit contagion phenomena and study the fluctuation of aggregate credit losses on large portfolios of financial positions. The joint dynamics of firms' credit...

This paper analyzes short term portfolio investment opportunities in a capital market where a currency is defined as a currency basket, i.e. a linear combination of foreign currencies. In line with the mean-variance hedging approach, we determine a self-financed optimal investment strategy which...

We introduce the notion of a convex measure of risk, an extension of the concept of a coherent risk measure defined in Artzner et aL (1999), and we prove a corresponding extension of the representation theorem in terms of probability measures on the underlying space of scenarios. As a case...