This book offers a rigorous and self-contained presentation of stochastic integration and stochastic calculus within the general framework of continuous semimartingales. The main tools of stochastic calculus, including Itô’s formula, the optional stopping theorem and Girsanov’s theorem, are treated in detail alongside many illustrative examples. The book also contains an introduction to Markov processes, with applications to solutions of stochastic differential equations and to connections between Brownian motion and partial differential equations. The theory of local times of semimartingales is discussed in the last chapter. Since its invention by Itô, stochastic calculus has proven to be one of the most important techniques of modern probability theory, and has been used in the most recent theoretical advances as well as in applications to other fields such as mathematical finance. Brownian Motion, Martingales, and Stochastic Calculus provides a strong theoretical background to the reader interested in such developments. Beginning graduate or advanced undergraduate students will benefit from this detailed approach to an essential area of probability theory. The emphasis is on concise and efficient presentation, without any concession to mathematical rigor. The material has been taught by the author for several years in graduate courses at two of the most prestigious French universities. The fact that proofs are given with full details makes the book particularly suitable for self-study. The numerous exercises help the reader to get acquainted with the tools of stochastic calculus.

A graduate-course text, written for readers familiar with measure-theoretic probability and discrete-time processes, wishing to explore stochastic processes in continuous time. The vehicle chosen for this exposition is Brownian motion, which is presented as the canonical example of both a martingale and a Markov process with continuous paths. In this context, the theory of stochastic integration and stochastic calculus is developed, illustrated by results concerning representations of martingales and change of measure on Wiener space, which in turn permit a presentation of recent advances in financial economics. The book contains a detailed discussion of weak and strong solutions of stochastic differential equations and a study of local time for semimartingales, with special emphasis on the theory of Brownian local time. The whole is backed by a large number of problems and exercises.

"This is a magnificent book! Its purpose is to describe in considerable detail a variety of techniques used by probabilists in the investigation of problems concerning Brownian motion....This is THE book for a capable graduate student starting out on research in probability: the effect of working through it is as if the authors are sitting beside one, enthusiastically explaining the theory, presenting further developments as exercises." –BULLETIN OF THE L.M.S.

Brownian motion is one of the most important stochastic processes in continuous time and with continuous state space. Within the realm of stochastic processes, Brownian motion is at the intersection of Gaussian processes, martingales, Markov processes, diffusions and random fractals, and it has influenced the study of these topics. Its central position within mathematics is matched by numerous applications in science, engineering and mathematical finance. Often textbooks on probability theory cover, if at all, Brownian motion only briefly. On the other hand, there is a considerable gap to more specialized texts on Brownian motion which is not so easy to overcome for the novice. The authors’ aim was to write a book which can be used as an introduction to Brownian motion and stochastic calculus, and as a first course in continuous-time and continuous-state Markov processes. They also wanted to have a text which would be both a readily accessible mathematical back-up for contemporary applications (such as mathematical finance) and a foundation to get easy access to advanced monographs. This textbook, tailored to the needs of graduate and advanced undergraduate students, covers Brownian motion, starting from its elementary properties, certain distributional aspects, path properties, and leading to stochastic calculus based on Brownian motion. It also includes numerical recipes for the simulation of Brownian motion.

Stochastic calculus has important applications to mathematical finance. This book will appeal to practitioners and students who want an elementary introduction to these areas. From the reviews: "As the preface says, ‘This is a text with an attitude, and it is designed to reflect, wherever possible and appropriate, a prejudice for the concrete over the abstract’. This is also reflected in the style of writing which is unusually lively for a mathematics book." --ZENTRALBLATT MATH

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory of stochastic calculus and some of its applications. It is the only textbook on the subject to include more than two hundred exercises with complete solutions. After explaining the basic elements of probability, the author introduces more advanced topics such as Brownian motion, martingales and Markov processes. The core of the book covers stochastic calculus, including stochastic differential equations, the relationship to partial differential equations, numerical methods and simulation, as well as applications of stochastic processes to finance. The final chapter provides detailed solutions to all exercises, in some cases presenting various solution techniques together with a discussion of advantages and drawbacks of the methods used. Stochastic Calculus will be particularly useful to advanced undergraduate and graduate students wishing to acquire a solid understanding of the subject through the theory and exercises. Including full mathematical statements and rigorous proofs, this book is completely self-contained and suitable for lecture courses as well as self-study.