Volatility permeates modern financial theories and decision making processes. As such, accurate measures and good forecasts of future volatility are critical for the implementation and evaluation of asset and derivative pricing theories as well as trading and hedging strategies. In response to this, a voluminous literature has emerged for modeling the temporal dependencies in financial market volatility at the daily and lower frequencies using ARCH and stochastic volatility type models. Most of these studies find highly significant in-sample parameter estimates and pronounced intertemporal volatility persistence. Meanwhile, when judged by standard forecast evaluation criteria, based on the squared or absolute returns over daily or longer forecast horizons, standard volatility models provide seemingly poor forecasts. The present paper demonstrates that, contrary to this contention, in empirically realistic situations the models actually produce strikingly accurate interdaily forecasts f...

this paper is built. First, although raw returns are clearly leptokurtic, returns standardized by realized volatilities are approximately Gaussian. Second, although the distributions of realized volatilities are clearly right-skewed, the distributions of the logarithms of realized volatilities are approximately Gaussian. Third, the long-run dynamics of realized logarithmic volatilities are well approximated by a fractionally-integrated long-memory process. Motivated by the three ABDL empirical regularities, we proceed to estimate and evaluate a multivariate model for the logarithmic realized volatilities: a fractionally-integrated Gaussian vector autoregression (VAR) . Importantly, our approach explicitly permits measurement errors in the realized volatilities. Comparing the resulting volatility forecasts to those obtained from currently popular daily volatility models and more complicated high-frequency models, we find that our simple Gaussian VAR forecasts generally produce superior forecasts. Furthermore, we show that, given the theoretically motivated and empirically plausible assumption of normally distributed returns conditional on the realized volatilities, the resulting lognormal-normal mixture forecast distribution provides conditionally well-calibrated density forecasts of returns, from which we obtain accurate estimates of conditional return quantiles. In the remainder of this paper, we proceed as follows. We begin in section 2 by formally developing the relevant quadratic variation theory within a standard frictionless arbitrage-free multivariate pricing environment. In section 3 we discuss the practical construction of realized volatilities from high-frequency foreign exchange returns. Next, in section 4 we summarize the salient distributional features of r...

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Using high-frequency data on deutschemark and yen returns against the dollar, we construct model-free estimates of daily exchange rate volatility and correlation that cover an entire decade. Our estimates, termed realized volatilities and correlations, are not only model-free, but also approximately free of measurement error under general conditions, which we discuss in detail. Hence, for practical purposes, we may treat the exchange rate volatilities and correlations as observed rather than latent. We do so, and we characterize their joint distribution, both unconditionally and conditionally. Noteworthy results include a simple normality-inducing volatility transformation, high contemporaneous correlation across volatilities, high correlation between correlation and volatilities, pronounced and persistent dynamics in volatilities and correlations, evidence of long-memory dynamics in volatilities and correlations, and remarkably precise scaling laws under temporal aggregation.

We propose using the price range in the estimation of stochastic volatility models. We show theoretically, numerically, and empirically that range-based volatility proxies are not only highly efficient, but also approximately Gaussian and robust to microstructure noise. Hence range-based Gaussian quasi-maximum likelihood estimation produces highly efficient estimates of stochastic volatility models and extractions of latent volatility. We use our method to examine the dynamics of daily exchange rate volatility and find the evidence points strongly toward two-factor models with one highly persistent factor and one quickly mean-reverting factor. VOLATILITY IS A CENTRAL CONCEPT in finance, whether in asset pricing, portfolio choice, or risk management. Not long ago, theoretical models routinely assumed constant volatility ~e.g., Merton ~1969!, Black and Scholes ~1973!!. Today, however, we widely acknowledge that volatility is both time varying and predictable ~e.g., Andersen and Bollerslev ~1997!!, andstochastic volatility models are commonplace. Discrete- and continuous-time stochastic volatility models are extensively used in theoretical finance, empirical finance, and financial econometrics, both in academe and industry ~e.g., Hull and

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A common model for security price dynamics is the continuous time stochastic volatility model. For this model, Hull and White (1987) show that the price of a derivative claim is the conditional expectation of the Black-Scholes price with the forward integrated variance replacing the Black-Scholes variance. Implementing the Hull and White characterization requires both estimates of the price dynamics and the conditional distribution of the forward integrated variance given observed variables. Using daily data on close-to-close price movement and the daily range, we find that standard models do not fit the data very well and a more general three factor model does better, as it mimics the long-memory feature of financial volatility. We develop techniques for estimating the conditional distribution of the forward integrated variance given observed variables. 1 Introduction This paper has two objectives: The first is to extend and implement methods for estimating diffusion models of secu...

This paper proposes and estimates a more general parametric stochastic variance model of equity index returns than has been previously considered using data from both underlying and options markets. The parameters of the model under both the objective and riskneutral measures are estimated simultaneously. I conclude that the square root stochastic variance model of Heston (1993) and others is incapable of generating realistic returns behavior and find that the data are more accurately represented by a stochastic variance model in the CEV class or a model that allows the price and variance processes to have a time-varying correlation. Specifically, I find that as the level of market variance increases, the volatility of market variance increases rapidly and the correlation between the price and variance processes becomes substantially more negative. The heightened heteroskedasticity in market variance that results generates realistic crash probabilities and dynamics and causes returns to display values of skewness and kurtosis much more consistent with their sample values. While the model dramatically improves the fit of options prices relative to the square root process, it falls short of explaining the implied volatility smile for short-dated options.

A rapidly growing literature has documented important improvements in financial return volatility measurement and forecasting via use of realized variation measures constructed from high-frequency returns coupled with simple modeling procedures. Building on recent theoretical results in Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard (2004a, 2005) for related bi-power variation measures, the present paper provides a practical and robust framework for non-parametrically measuring the jump component in asset return volatility. In an application to the DM/ $ exchange rate, the S&P500 market index, and the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yield, we find that jumps are both highly prevalent and distinctly less persistent than the continuous sample path variation process. Moreover, many jumps appear directly associated with specific macroeconomic news announcements. Separating jump from non-jump movements in a simple but sophisticated volatility forecasting model, we find that almost all of the predictability in daily, weekly, and monthly return volatilities comes from the non-jump component. Our results thus set the stage for a number of interesting future econometric developments and important financial applications by separately modeling, forecasting, and pricing the continuous and jump components of the total return variation process.