IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2606.28990.html

The Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing, Formalized in Lean 4

Author

Listed:
  • Raphael Coelho

Abstract

The Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing states that a market is free of arbitrage exactly when it admits an equivalent martingale measure. We formalize it in Lean 4 over Mathlib in three settings: a finite-state market over a finite horizon (Harrison-Pliska), a one-period market on an arbitrary probability space with a single scalar return (Follmer-Schied), and a one-period market with finitely many assets. The finite case is the geometry of a separating hyperplane; the scalar one-period case is an elementary change of measure. In the $d$-asset case the equivalent martingale measure is constructed explicitly, as the minimiser of the smooth convex potential $\mathbb{E}[\log(1+e^{\langle\theta,Y\rangle})]$: absence of arbitrage is precisely coercivity of the potential, its first-order condition is the martingale property, and the minimiser's logistic weight is the density of the measure. The construction uses no Hahn-Banach theorem, no $L^0$-closedness argument, no measurable selection, and no non-redundancy hypothesis. To our knowledge this is the first machine-checked Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing in any proof assistant. The boundary is explicit: the general multi-period Dalang-Morton-Willinger theorem lies outside the development. Every theorem is sorry-free, each headline result's axioms are pinned to Mathlib's classical defaults by a build-enforced gate, and the whole is reproducible from a pinned toolchain.

Suggested Citation

  • Raphael Coelho, 2026. "The Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing, Formalized in Lean 4," Papers 2606.28990, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2606.28990
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.28990
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Michael Harrison & Stanley R. Pliska, 1981. "Martingales and Stochastic Integrals in the Theory of Continous Trading," Discussion Papers 454, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    2. Harrison, J. Michael & Kreps, David M., 1979. "Martingales and arbitrage in multiperiod securities markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 381-408, June.
    3. Harrison, J. Michael & Pliska, Stanley R., 1981. "Martingales and stochastic integrals in the theory of continuous trading," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 215-260, August.
    4. Raphael Coelho, 2026. "A Formally Verified Library of Mathematical Finance in Lean 4," Papers 2606.01356, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2026.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcelo F. Perillo, 2021. "Valuación de Títulos de Deuda Indexados al Comportamiento de un Índice Accionario: Un Modelo sin Riesgo de Crédito," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 784, Universidad del CEMA.
    2. Timothy Johnson, 2015. "Reciprocity as a Foundation of Financial Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 43-67, September.
    3. Alessandro Doldi & Marco Frittelli & Marco Maggis, 2026. "Collective completeness and pricing-hedging duality II," Papers 2606.19038, arXiv.org.
    4. Jovanovic, Franck & Schinckus, Christophe, 2016. "Breaking down the barriers between econophysics and financial economics," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 256-266.
    5. Clarence Simard & Bruno Rémillard, 2019. "Pricing European Options in a Discrete Time Model for the Limit Order Book," Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 985-1005, September.
    6. Fergusson, Kevin, 2020. "Less-Expensive Valuation And Reserving Of Long-Dated Variable Annuities When Interest Rates And Mortality Rates Are Stochastic," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(2), pages 381-417, May.
    7. N. Azevedo & D. Pinheiro & S. Z. Xanthopoulos & A. N. Yannacopoulos, 2018. "Who would invest only in the risk-free asset?," International Journal of Financial Engineering (IJFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-14, September.
    8. Hardeep Singh Mundi, 2023. "Risk neutral variances to compute expected returns using data from S&P BSE 100 firms—a replication study," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 215-230, February.
    9. Alessandro Doldi & Marco Frittelli & Marco Maggis, 2026. "When cooperation is beneficial to all agents," Papers 2604.02862, arXiv.org.
    10. repec:uts:finphd:40 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. W. Schachermayer, 1994. "Martingale Measures For Discrete‐Time Processes With Infinite Horizon," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 25-55, January.
    12. Claudio Fontana, 2015. "Weak And Strong No-Arbitrage Conditions For Continuous Financial Markets," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(01), pages 1-34.
    13. Michael C. Fu & Bingqing Li & Guozhen Li & Rongwen Wu, 2017. "Option Pricing for a Jump-Diffusion Model with General Discrete Jump-Size Distributions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(11), pages 3961-3977, November.
    14. Zhanyu Chen & Kai Zhang & Hongbiao Zhao, 2022. "A Skellam market model for loan prime rate options," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(3), pages 525-551, March.
    15. Abraham Lioui & Patrice Poncet, 2000. "The Minimum Variance Hedge Ratio Under Stochastic Interest Rates," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(5), pages 658-668, May.
    16. Cinfrignini, Andrea & Petturiti, Davide & Vantaggi, Barbara, 2023. "Dynamic bid–ask pricing under Dempster-Shafer uncertainty," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    17. Weissensteiner, Alex, 2010. "Using the Black-Derman-Toy interest rate model for portfolio optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(1), pages 175-181, April.
    18. Eckhard Platen & Stefan Tappe, 2020. "The Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing for Self-Financing Portfolios," Research Paper Series 411, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    19. Xiaowei Ding & Kay Giesecke & Pascal I. Tomecek, 2009. "Time-Changed Birth Processes and Multiname Credit Derivatives," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(4), pages 990-1005, August.
    20. Di Corato, Luca & Moretto, Michele, 2016. "Selling real assets: the impact of idiosyncratic project risk in an auction environment," Working Paper Series 2016:9, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department Economics.
    21. Melenberg, B. & Werker, B.J.M., 1996. "On the Pricing of Options in Incomplete Markets," Discussion Paper 1996-19, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2606.28990. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.