We review the relations between adjoints of stochastic control problems with the derivative of the value function, and the latter with the value function of a stopping problem. These results are applied to the pricing of contingent claims.

It is well known that backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) stem from the study on the Pontryagin type maximum principle for optional stochastic control. A solution of a BSDE hits a given terminal value (which is a random variable) by virtue of an additional martingale term and an...

The existence of an adapted solution to a backward stochastic differential equation which is not adapted to the filtration of the underlying Brownian motion is proved. This result is applied to the pricing of contingent claims. It allows to compare the prices of agents who have different...

In both complete and incomplete markets we consider the problem of fulfilling a financial obligation xc as well as possible at time T if the initial capital is not sufficient to hedge xc. This introduces a new risk into the market and our main aim is to minimize this shortfall risk by making use...