Construction

Let $(\varepsilon_i)_{i\ge 1}$ be i.i.d. random variables with

$$ \mathbb P(\varepsilon_i=1)=\mathbb P(\varepsilon_i=-1)=\frac12, $$

and define the simple random walk

$$ X_n=\sum_{i=1}^n \varepsilon_i, \qquad \mathcal F_n=\sigma(\varepsilon_1,\dots,\varepsilon_n). $$

For $\theta\in\mathbb R$, define

$$ \lambda(\theta)=\log \mathbb E[e^{\theta\varepsilon_1}]

\log\left(\frac{e^\theta+e^{-\theta}}2\right). $$

Then

$$ M_n(\theta)=\exp\bigl(\theta X_n-n\lambda(\theta)\bigr) $$

is a martingale with respect to $(\mathcal F_n)$.

Verification

Using $X_{n+1}=X_n+\varepsilon_{n+1}$,

$$ M_{n+1}(\theta)

\exp\bigl(\theta X_n+\theta\varepsilon_{n+1}-(n+1)\lambda(\theta)\bigr). $$

Conditioning on $\mathcal F_n$ gives

$$ \mathbb E[M_{n+1}(\theta)\mid \mathcal F_n]

e^{\theta X_n-(n+1)\lambda(\theta)} \mathbb E[e^{\theta\varepsilon_{n+1}}\mid \mathcal F_n]. $$

Since $\varepsilon_{n+1}$ is independent of $\mathcal F_n$,

$$ \mathbb E[e^{\theta\varepsilon_{n+1}}\mid \mathcal F_n]

\mathbb E[e^{\theta\varepsilon_{n+1}}]

e^{\lambda(\theta)}. $$

Therefore,

$$ \mathbb E[M_{n+1}(\theta)\mid \mathcal F_n]

e^{\theta X_n-n\lambda(\theta)}

M_n(\theta). $$