arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Philip Ernst.
Using a bondholder who seeks to determine when to sell his bond as our motivating example, we revisit one of Larry Shepp's classical theorems on optimal stopping. We offer a novel proof of Theorem 1 from from \cite{Shepp}. Our approach is that of guessing the optimal control function and proving its optimality with martingales. Without martingale theory one could hardly prove our guess to be correct.
We pose an optimal control problem arising in a perhaps new model for retirement investing. Given a control function $f$ and our current net worth as $X(t)$ for any $t$, we invest an amount $f(X(t))$ in the market. We need a fortune of $M$ "superdollars" to retire and want to retire as early as possible. We model our change in net worth over each infinitesimal time interval by the Ito process $dX(t)= (1+f(X(t))dt+ f(X(t))dW(t)$. We show how to choose the optimal $f=f_0$ and show that the choice of $f_0$ is optimal among all nonanticipative investment strategies, not just among Markovian ones.
We find the class, ${\cal{C}}_k, k \ge 0$, of all zero mean stationary Gaussian processes, $Y(t), ~t \in \reals$ with $k$ derivatives, for which \begin{equation} Z(t) \equiv (Y^{(0)}(t), Y^{(1)}(t), \ldots, Y^{(k)}(t) ), ~ t \ge 0 \end{equation} \noindent is a $(k+1)$-vector Markov process. (here, $Y^{(0)}(t) = Y(t)$).