Optimal discretization of stochastic integrals driven by general Brownian semimartingale.

Summary We study the optimal discretization error of stochastic integrals, driven by a multidimensional continuous Brownian semimartingale. In this setting we establish a pathwise lower bound for the renormalized quadratic variation of the error and we provide a sequence of discretiza- tion stopping times, which is asymptotically optimal. The latter is defined as hitting times of random ellipsoids by the semimartingale at hand. In comparison with previous available results, we allow a quite large class of semimartingales (relaxing in particular the non degeneracy conditions usually requested) and we prove that the asymptotic lower bound is attainable.