Is Jensen’s Inequality strict for the maximum function

jensen-inequalityprobability

Right now I am studying Peter Carrs' and Robert Jarrow's Paper called The Stopp-Loss Start-Gain Paradox (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5217237_The_Stop-Loss_Start-Gain_Paradox_and_Option_Valuation_A_New_Decomposition_Into_Intrinsic_and_Time_Value), in which he analyses the so called Stopp-Loss-Strategy in the Black-Scholes-Model. In Lemma A2 he states the following:

Let $Y_t$ be a geometric Brownian motion and $g(x) = (x-K)^+$ be the maximum-function for $K>0$. Since $g$ is strictly convex over an intervall containing $K$, Jensen's inequality holds strictly; that is,

$E[g(Y_t)] > g(E[Y_t])$.

I don't understand how Jensen's inequality is holding strictly here, since $g$ is only convex, but not strictly convex. I already looked at the measure-theoretic proof and tried to work it out using subderivatives, but I didn't get anywhere.

Best Answer

I don't think you can prove this using strict convexity. If you use the following addition al fact about the process $(Y_t)$ you can prove this from first principles:

$$0<P(Y_t <K) <1$$

Assuming this note that $\int Y_t dP=\int_{Y_t \geq K} Y_t dP+\int_{Y_t < K} Y_t dP<\int_{Y_t \geq K} Y_t dP+KP(Y_t<K)$: strict inequality holds because $\int_{Y_t < K} Y_t dP \leq KP(Y_t <k) <K$ by above mentioned property.

Keeping this in mind consider $Eg(Y_t)=\int (Y_t-K)^{+}dP =\int_{Y_t \geq K} (Y_t-K) dP>\int Y_t dP-K$ if $EY_t >K$ (by the inequality just established); also $\int_{Y_t \geq K} (Y_t-K) dP>0$ (by the fact that $P(Y_t \geq K) >0$. Combining these two inequalities we get $Eg(Y_t) > \max \{0, \int Y_t dP-K\}=g(EY_t)$.

Related Question