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Mixtures of t-distributions for Finance and Forecasting

Author

Listed:
  • Giacomini, Raffaella

    (University College London)

  • Gottschling, Andreas

    (Deutsche Bank AG, Credit RiskManagement)

  • Haefke, Christian

    (Department of Economics and Finance, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria)

  • White, Halbert

    (Department of Economics, University of California, San Diego)

Abstract

We explore convenient analytic properties of distributions constructed as mixtures of scaled and shifted t-distributions. A feature that makes this family particularly desirable for econometric applications is that it possesses closed-form expressions for its anti-derivatives (e.g., the cumulative density function). We illustrate the usefulness of these distributions in two applications. In the first application, we use a scaled and shifted t-distribution to produce density forecasts of U.S. inflation and show that these forecasts are more accurate, out-of-sample, than density forecasts obtained using normal or standard t-distributions. In the second application, we replicate the option-pricing exercise of Abadir and Rockinger (2003) using a mixture of scaled and shifted t-distributions and obtain comparably good results, while gaining analytical tractability.

Suggested Citation

  • Giacomini, Raffaella & Gottschling, Andreas & Haefke, Christian & White, Halbert, 2007. "Mixtures of t-distributions for Finance and Forecasting," Economics Series 216, Institute for Advanced Studies.
  • Handle: RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:216
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    File URL: https://irihs.ihs.ac.at/id/eprint/1800
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul H. Kupiec, 1995. "Techniques for verifying the accuracy of risk measurement models," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 95-24, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    2. Karim Abadir, 1999. "An introduction to hypergeometric functions for economists," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 287-330.
    3. Diebold, Francis X & Gunther, Todd A & Tay, Anthony S, 1998. "Evaluating Density Forecasts with Applications to Financial Risk Management," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(4), pages 863-883, November.
    4. Yi-Ting Chen & Chung-Ming Kuan, 2002. "Time irreversibility and EGARCH effects in US stock index returns," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 565-578.
    5. Breeden, Douglas T & Litzenberger, Robert H, 1978. "Prices of State-contingent Claims Implicit in Option Prices," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 621-651, October.
    6. Abadir, Karim M. & Rockinger, Michael, 2003. "Density Functionals, With An Option-Pricing Application," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(5), pages 778-811, October.
    7. Melick, William R. & Thomas, Charles P., 1997. "Recovering an Asset's Implied PDF from Option Prices: An Application to Crude Oil during the Gulf Crisis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(1), pages 91-115, March.
    8. Yacine Aït-Sahalia & Andrew W. Lo, 1998. "Nonparametric Estimation of State-Price Densities Implicit in Financial Asset Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(2), pages 499-547, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Karl Härdle, Wolfgang & López-Cabrera, Brenda & Teng, Huei-Wen, 2015. "State price densities implied from weather derivatives," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 106-125.
    2. Martínez-Ovando Juan Carlos & Walker Stephen G., 2011. "Time-series Modelling, Stationarity and Bayesian Nonparametric Methods," Working Papers 2011-08, Banco de México.
    3. Chang, Kuang-Liang, 2012. "Volatility regimes, asymmetric basis effects and forecasting performance: An empirical investigation of the WTI crude oil futures market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 294-306.
    4. Shen Peng & Navnit Yadav & Abdel Lisser & Vikas Vikram Singh, 2021. "Chance-constrained games with mixture distributions," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 94(1), pages 71-97, August.
    5. Farbmacher, Helmut & Löw, Leander & Spindler, Martin, 2022. "An explainable attention network for fraud detection in claims management," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 228(2), pages 244-258.
    6. Haas, Markus & Liu, Ji-Chun, 2015. "Theory for a Multivariate Markov--switching GARCH Model with an Application to Stock Markets," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112855, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ARMA-GARCH models; neural networks; nonparametric density estimation; forecast accuracy; option pricing; risk neutral density;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • C45 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Neural Networks and Related Topics

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