  In this paper, we provide some results on Skorokhod embedding with local time
and its applications to the robust hedging problem in finance. First we
investigate the robust hedging of options depending on the local time by using
the recently introduced stochastic control approach, in order to identify the
optimal hedging strategies, as well as the market models that realize the
extremal no-arbitrage prices. As a by-product, the optimality of Vallois'
Skorokhod embeddings is recovered. In addition, under appropriate conditions,
we derive a new solution to the two-marginal Skorokhod embedding as a
generalization of the Vallois solution. It turns out from our analysis that one
needs to relax the monotonicity assumption on the embedding functions in order
to embed a larger class of marginal distributions. Finally, in a full-marginal
setting where the stopping times given by Vallois are well-ordered, we
construct a remarkable Markov martingale which provides a new example of fake
Brownian motion.
