Given a Markovian Brownian martingale $Z$, we build a process $X$ which is a
martingale in its own filtration and satisfies $X_1 = Z_1$. We call $X$ a
dynamic bridge, because its terminal value $Z_1$ is not known in advance. We
compute explicitly its semimartingale decomposition under both its own
filtration $\cF^X$ and the filtration $\cF^{X,Z}$ jointly generated by $X$ and
$Z$. Our construction is heavily based on parabolic PDE's and filtering
techniques.
For utility maximization problems under proportional transaction costs, it
has been observed that the original market with transaction costs can sometimes
be replaced by a frictionless "shadow market" that yields the same optimal
strategy and utility. However, the question of whether or not this indeed holds
in generality has remained elusive so far. In this paper we present a
counterexample which shows that shadow prices may fail to exist.