Let X1, ..., Xn : Ω → R be independent random variables defined on a common probability space (Ω, F, Pr), with expected value E[Xk] = 0 and variance Var[Xk] < +∞ for k = 1, ..., n. Then, for each λ > 0,
![{\displaystyle \Pr \left(\max _{1\leq k\leq n}|S_{k}|\geq \lambda \right)\leq {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\operatorname {Var} [S_{n}]\equiv {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{k=1}^{n}\operatorname {Var} [X_{k}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{k=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[X_{k}^{2}],}](//wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/c0d0bacbb6caf724405778810930c37e5e4dd995)
where Sk = X1 + ... + Xk.
The convenience of this result is that we can bound the worst case deviation of a random walk at any point of time using its value at the end of time interval.
The following argument employs discrete martingales.
As argued in the discussion of Doob's martingale inequality, the sequence 
is a martingale.
Define 
as follows. Let 
, and
for all 
.
Then is also a martingale.
For any martingale 
with 
, we have that
![{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[(M_{i}-M_{i-1})^{2}]&=\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[M_{i}^{2}-2M_{i}M_{i-1}+M_{i-1}^{2}]\\&=\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}\left[M_{i}^{2}-2(M_{i-1}+M_{i}-M_{i-1})M_{i-1}+M_{i-1}^{2}\right]\\&=\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}\left[M_{i}^{2}-M_{i-1}^{2}\right]-2{\text{E}}\left[M_{i-1}(M_{i}-M_{i-1})\right]\\&={\text{E}}[M_{n}^{2}]-{\text{E}}[M_{0}^{2}]={\text{E}}[M_{n}^{2}].\end{aligned}}}](//wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/e3e3b4b787f0b0ed34783ae053e957e04d78aa8e)
Applying this result to the martingale 
, we have
![{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\text{Pr}}\left(\max _{1\leq i\leq n}|S_{i}|\geq \lambda \right)&={\text{Pr}}[|Z_{n}|\geq \lambda ]\\&\leq {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}{\text{E}}[Z_{n}^{2}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[(Z_{i}-Z_{i-1})^{2}]\\&\leq {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[(S_{i}-S_{i-1})^{2}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}{\text{E}}[S_{n}^{2}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}{\text{Var}}[S_{n}]\end{aligned}}}](//wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/1d870bf261d30d0caed8e73274d5abc4ee492640)
where the first inequality follows by Chebyshev's inequality.
This inequality was generalized by Hájek and Rényi in 1955.
![{\displaystyle \Pr \left(\max _{1\leq k\leq n}|S_{k}|\geq \lambda \right)\leq {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\operatorname {Var} [S_{n}]\equiv {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{k=1}^{n}\operatorname {Var} [X_{k}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{k=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[X_{k}^{2}],}](http://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/c0d0bacbb6caf724405778810930c37e5e4dd995)
![{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[(M_{i}-M_{i-1})^{2}]&=\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[M_{i}^{2}-2M_{i}M_{i-1}+M_{i-1}^{2}]\\&=\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}\left[M_{i}^{2}-2(M_{i-1}+M_{i}-M_{i-1})M_{i-1}+M_{i-1}^{2}\right]\\&=\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}\left[M_{i}^{2}-M_{i-1}^{2}\right]-2{\text{E}}\left[M_{i-1}(M_{i}-M_{i-1})\right]\\&={\text{E}}[M_{n}^{2}]-{\text{E}}[M_{0}^{2}]={\text{E}}[M_{n}^{2}].\end{aligned}}}](http://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/e3e3b4b787f0b0ed34783ae053e957e04d78aa8e)
![{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\text{Pr}}\left(\max _{1\leq i\leq n}|S_{i}|\geq \lambda \right)&={\text{Pr}}[|Z_{n}|\geq \lambda ]\\&\leq {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}{\text{E}}[Z_{n}^{2}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[(Z_{i}-Z_{i-1})^{2}]\\&\leq {\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}\sum _{i=1}^{n}{\text{E}}[(S_{i}-S_{i-1})^{2}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}{\text{E}}[S_{n}^{2}]={\frac {1}{\lambda ^{2}}}{\text{Var}}[S_{n}]\end{aligned}}}](http://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/1d870bf261d30d0caed8e73274d5abc4ee492640)