IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rfinst/v18y2005i2p351-416.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Often to Sample a Continuous-Time Process in the Presence of Market Microstructure Noise

Author

Listed:
  • Yacine Aït-Sahalia

Abstract

In theory, the sum of squares of log returns sampled at high frequency estimates their variance. When market microstructure noise is present but unaccounted for, however, we show that the optimal sampling frequency is finite and derives its closed-form expression. But even with optimal sampling, using say 5-min returns when transactions are recorded every second, a vast amount of data is discarded, in contradiction to basic statistical principles. We demonstrate that modeling the noise and using all the data is a better solution, even if one misspecifies the noise distribution. So the answer is: sample as often as possible. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Yacine Aït-Sahalia, 2005. "How Often to Sample a Continuous-Time Process in the Presence of Market Microstructure Noise," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 351-416.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:18:y:2005:i:2:p:351-416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhi016
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter & Scheinkman, Jose Alexandre, 1995. "Back to the Future: Generating Moment Implications for Continuous-Time Markov Processes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 767-804, July.
    2. Madhavan, Ananth & Richardson, Matthew & Roomans, Mark, 1997. "Why Do Security Prices Change? A Transaction-Level Analysis of NYSE Stocks," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 1035-1064.
    3. Federico M. Bandi & Peter C. B. Phillips, 2003. "Fully Nonparametric Estimation of Scalar Diffusion Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 241-283, January.
    4. Yacine Ait--Sahalia & Per A. Mykland, 2003. "The Effects of Random and Discrete Sampling when Estimating Continuous--Time Diffusions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(2), pages 483-549, March.
    5. MaCurdy, Thomas E., 1982. "The use of time series processes to model the error structure of earnings in a longitudinal data analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 83-114, January.
    6. Ait-Sahalia, Yacine, 1996. "Nonparametric Pricing of Interest Rate Derivative Securities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(3), pages 527-560, May.
    7. Ole E. Barndorff‐Nielsen & Neil Shephard, 2002. "Econometric analysis of realized volatility and its use in estimating stochastic volatility models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(2), pages 253-280, May.
    8. White, Halbert, 1982. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Misspecified Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 1-25, January.
    9. Neil Shephard, 2005. "Stochastic Volatility," Economics Papers 2005-W17, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    10. Torben G. Andersen & Tim Bollerslev & Francis X. Diebold & Paul Labys, 2003. "Modeling and Forecasting Realized Volatility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(2), pages 579-625, March.
    11. Hasbrouck, Joel, 1993. "Assessing the Quality of a Security Market: A New Approach to Transaction-Cost Measurement," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 191-212.
    12. Merton, Robert C., 1980. "On estimating the expected return on the market : An exploratory investigation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 323-361, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Bin & Song, Zhaogang, 2013. "Testing whether the underlying continuous-time process follows a diffusion: An infinitesimal operator-based approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 173(1), pages 83-107.
    2. Barndorff-Nielsen, Ole E. & Graversen, Svend Erik & Jacod, Jean & Shephard, Neil, 2006. "Limit Theorems For Bipower Variation In Financial Econometrics," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 677-719, August.
    3. Ang, Andrew & Kristensen, Dennis, 2012. "Testing conditional factor models," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 132-156.
    4. Nour Meddahi, 2002. "A theoretical comparison between integrated and realized volatility," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 479-508.
    5. Yu, Jun, 2012. "Bias in the estimation of the mean reversion parameter in continuous time models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 169(1), pages 114-122.
    6. Renò, Roberto, 2008. "Nonparametric Estimation Of The Diffusion Coefficient Of Stochastic Volatility Models," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(5), pages 1174-1206, October.
    7. Chen, Fei & Diebold, Francis X. & Schorfheide, Frank, 2013. "A Markov-switching multifractal inter-trade duration model, with application to US equities," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 177(2), pages 320-342.
    8. Koo, Bonsoo & Linton, Oliver, 2012. "Estimation of semiparametric locally stationary diffusion models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 170(1), pages 210-233.
    9. Veiga, Helena, 2006. "Volatility forecasts: a continuous time model versus discrete time models," DES - Working Papers. Statistics and Econometrics. WS ws062509, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Estadística.
    10. A. S. Hurn & J. I. Jeisman & K. A. Lindsay, 0. "Seeing the Wood for the Trees: A Critical Evaluation of Methods to Estimate the Parameters of Stochastic Differential Equations," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 390-455.
    11. Ghysels, Eric & Santa-Clara, Pedro & Valkanov, Rossen, 2006. "Predicting volatility: getting the most out of return data sampled at different frequencies," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1-2), pages 59-95.
    12. Nour Meddahi, 2003. "ARMA representation of integrated and realized variances," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 6(2), pages 335-356, December.
    13. Kristensen, Dennis, 2011. "Semi-nonparametric estimation and misspecification testing of diffusion models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 164(2), pages 382-403, October.
    14. Andersen, Torben G. & Bollerslev, Tim & Meddahi, Nour, 2011. "Realized volatility forecasting and market microstructure noise," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 160(1), pages 220-234, January.
    15. Yu, Jialin, 2007. "Closed-form likelihood approximation and estimation of jump-diffusions with an application to the realignment risk of the Chinese Yuan," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1245-1280, December.
    16. Offer Lieberman & Peter Phillips, 2008. "Refined Inference on Long Memory in Realized Volatility," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-3), pages 254-267.
    17. Yacine Ait-Sahalia, 1998. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Discretely Sampled Diffusions: A Closed-Form Approach," NBER Technical Working Papers 0222, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Jianqing Fan & Yingying Fan & Jinchi Lv, 0. "Aggregation of Nonparametric Estimators for Volatility Matrix," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 321-357.
    19. Ole E. Barndorff-Nielsen & Neil Shephard, 2002. "Estimating quadratic variation using realized variance," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 457-477.
    20. Hillebrand, Eric & Schnabl, Gunther & Ulu, Yasemin, 2009. "Japanese foreign exchange intervention and the yen-to-dollar exchange rate: A simultaneous equations approach using realized volatility," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 490-505, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:18:y:2005:i:2:p:351-416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfsssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.