Multi-fractal processes have recently been proposed as a new formalism for modelling the time series of returns in finance. The major attraction of these processes is their ability to generate various degrees of long memory in different powers of returns - a feature that has been found in virtually all financial data. Initial difficulties stemming from non-stationarity and the combinatorial nature of the original model have been overcome by the introduction of an iterative Markov-switching multi-fractal model in Calvet and Fisher (2001) which allows for estimation of its parameters via maximum likelihood and Bayesian forecasting of volatility. However, applicability of MLE is restricted to cases with a discrete distribution of volatility components. From a practical point of view, ML also becomes computationally unfeasible for large numbers of components even if they are drawn from a discrete distribution. Here we propose an alternative GMM estimator together with linear forecasts which in principle is applicable for any continuous distribution with any number of volatility components. Monte Carlo studies show that GMM performs reasonably well for the popular Binomial and Lognormal models and that the loss incured with linear compared to optimal forecasts is small. Extending the number of volatility components beyond what is feasible with MLE leads to gains in forecasting accuracy for some time series.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics in its series Economics working papers with number
2004,11.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C20 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - General G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing
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.:
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.)