In mathematical finance, a replicating portfolio for a given asset or series of cash flows is a portfolio of assets with the same properties (especially cash flows). This is meant in two distinct senses: static replication, where the portfolio has the same cash flows as the reference asset (and no changes need to be made to maintain this), and dynamic replication, where the portfolio does not have the same cash flows, but has the same "Greeks" as the reference asset, meaning that for small (properly, infinitesimal) changes to underlying market parameters, the price of the asset and the price of the portfolio change in the same way. Dynamic replication requires continual adjustment, as the asset and portfolio are only assumed to behave similarly at a single point (mathematically, their partial derivatives are equal at a single point).
Given an asset or liability, an offsetting replicating portfolio (a "hedge") is called a static hedge or dynamic hedge, and constructing such a portfolio (by selling or purchasing) is called static hedging or dynamic hedging. The notion of a replicating portfolio is fundamental to rational pricing, which assumes that market prices are arbitrage-free – concretely, arbitrage opportunities are exploited by constructing a replicating portfolio.
In practice, replicating portfolios are seldom, if ever, exact replications. Most significantly, unless they are claims against the same counterparties, there is credit risk. Further, dynamic replication is invariably imperfect, since actual price movements are not infinitesimal – they may in fact be large – and transaction costs to change the hedge are not zero.