This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Why VaR FailsLong Memory and Extreme Events in Financial Markets

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Cornelis A Los

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

The Value-at-Risk (VaR) measure is based on only the second moment of a rate of return distribution. It is an insufficient risk performance measure, since it ignores both the higher moments of the pricing distributions, like skewness and kurtosis, and all the fractional moments resulting from the long-term dependencies (long memory) of dynamic market pricing. Not coincidentally, the VaR methodology also devotes insufficient attention to the truly extreme financial events, i.e., those events that are catastrophic and that are clustering because of this long memory. Since the usual stationarity and i.i.d. assumptions of classical asset returns theory are not satisfied in reality, more attention should be paid to the measurement of the degree of dependence to determine the true risks to which any investment portfolio is exposed: The return distributions are time-varying and skewness and kurtosis occur and change over time. Conventional mean-variance diversification does not apply when the tails of the return distributions ate too fat, i.e., when many more than normal extreme events occur. Regrettably, also, Extreme Value Theory is empirically not valid, because it is based on the uncorroborated i.i.d. assumption. It appears that it is essential to determine the degree of long term dependence, persistence, or distributional stability of the investment return series before rational portfolio selection, analysis and management can take place.

Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

Publisher Info
Article provided by Icfai Press in its journal The Icfai University Journal of Financial Economics.

Volume (Year): III (2005)
Issue (Month): 3 (September)
Pages: 19-36
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:icf:icfjfe:v:03:y:2005:i:3:p:19-36

Contact details of provider:

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Srinivasulu Bayineni).

Related research
Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Hull, John C & White, Alan D, 1987. " The Pricing of Options on Assets with Stochastic Volatilities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 281-300, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Cornelis A. Los, 2004. "When to Put All Your Eggs in One Basket.....When Diversification Increases Portfolio Risk!," Finance 0411037, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Gregory P. Hopper, 1996. "Value at risk: a new methodology for measuring portfolio risk," Business Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, issue Jul, pages 19-31. [Downloadable!]
  4. Xiongwei Ju & Neil D. Pearson, 1998. "Using Value-at-Risk to Control Risk Taking: How Wrong Can you Be?," Finance 9810002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Cornelis A. Los, 2005. "The Degree of Stability of Price Diffusion," Finance 0508006, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? All full texts are decentralized with the publishers, none reside on this server, thus making it possible to offer this service for free to all parties.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-6.


This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.