Distribution-constrained maximum stopping of maximum type

Abstract

We consider the distribution-constrained optimal stopping problem $\sup_{\tau\sim \mu} \mathbb E[B^*_\tau]$, where $\mu$ is a probability distribution on $\mathbb R_+$, and $(B^*_t)$ denotes the running maximum of a standard Brownian motion. This problem was introduced in Beiglbock et al. (PTRF, 2018), where a monotonicity principle is used to establish the optimal stopping time as the hitting time of a specific boundary. In this paper, we characterize this boundary by a variational inequality. In the spirit of Cox et al. (PTRF, 2019), we provide a novel probabilistic representation for the variational inequality as a time-reversed optimal stopping problem. A key ingredient for proving the viscosity solution property and comparison principle is a quantitative estimate near the singular corner of the time-space domain, where the initial and boundary conditions are incompatible. We then prove the optimality of the resulting hitting time through a discrete-time Snell envelope construction and a stability argument for the associated stopping times.