We discuss martingales, detrending data, and the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) for stochastic processes x(t) with arbitrary diffusion coefficients D(x,t). Beginning with x-independent drift coefficients R(t) we show that martingale stochastic processes generate uncorrelated, generally...

Interest in thermodynamic analogies in economics is older than the idea of von Neumann to look for market entropy in liquidity, advice that was not taken in any thermodynamic analogy presented so far in the literature. In this paper, we go further and use a standard strategy from trading theory...

In their path-finding 1973 paper, Black and Scholes presented two separate derivations of their famous option pricing partial differential equation. The second derivation was from the standpoint that was Black's original motivation, namely, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). We show here,...

The usual derivation of the Fokker-Planck partial differential eqn. assumes the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation for a Markov process. Starting instead with an Ito stochastic differential equation we argue that finitely many states of memory are allowed in Kolmogorov's two pdes, K1 (the backward time...

A new theory for pricing options of a stock is presented. It is based on the assumption that while successive variations in return are uncorrelated, the frequency with which a stock is traded depends on the value of the return. The solution to the Fokker-Planck equation is shown to be an...

The condition for stationary increments, not scaling, detemines long time pair autocorrelations. An incorrect assumption of stationary increments generates spurious stylized facts, fat tails and a Hurst exponent H_s=1/2, when the increments are nonstationary, as they are in FX markets. The...

ARCH and GARCH models assume either i.i.d. or (what economists lable as) white noise as is usual in regression analysis while assuming memory in a conditional mean square fluctuation with stationary increments. We will show that ARCH/GARCH is inconsistent with uncorrelated increments, violating...

The method of cointegration in regression analysis is based on an assumption of stationary increments. Stationary increments with fixed time lag are called integration I(d). A class of regression models where cointegration works was identified by Granger and yields the ergodic behavior required...

Econometrics is based on the nonempiric notion of utility. Prices, dynamics, and market equilibria are supposed to be derived from utility. Utility is usually treated by economists as a price potential, other times utility rates are treated as Lagrangians. Assumptions of integrability of...

We show that Ito processes imply the Fokker-Planck (K2) and Kolmogorov backward time (K1) partial differential eqns. (pde) for transition densities, which in turn imply the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation without approximations. This result is not restricted to Markov processes. We define ‘finite...