445 research outputs found
Cleaning large correlation matrices: tools from random matrix theory
This review covers recent results concerning the estimation of large
covariance matrices using tools from Random Matrix Theory (RMT). We introduce
several RMT methods and analytical techniques, such as the Replica formalism
and Free Probability, with an emphasis on the Marchenko-Pastur equation that
provides information on the resolvent of multiplicatively corrupted noisy
matrices. Special care is devoted to the statistics of the eigenvectors of the
empirical correlation matrix, which turn out to be crucial for many
applications. We show in particular how these results can be used to build
consistent "Rotationally Invariant" estimators (RIE) for large correlation
matrices when there is no prior on the structure of the underlying process. The
last part of this review is dedicated to some real-world applications within
financial markets as a case in point. We establish empirically the efficacy of
the RIE framework, which is found to be superior in this case to all previously
proposed methods. The case of additively (rather than multiplicatively)
corrupted noisy matrices is also dealt with in a special Appendix. Several open
problems and interesting technical developments are discussed throughout the
paper.Comment: 165 pages, article submitted to Physics Report
Large Vector Auto Regressions
One popular approach for nonstructural economic and financial forecasting is
to include a large number of economic and financial variables, which has been
shown to lead to significant improvements for forecasting, for example, by the
dynamic factor models. A challenging issue is to determine which variables and
(their) lags are relevant, especially when there is a mixture of serial
correlation (temporal dynamics), high dimensional (spatial) dependence
structure and moderate sample size (relative to dimensionality and lags). To
this end, an \textit{integrated} solution that addresses these three challenges
simultaneously is appealing. We study the large vector auto regressions here
with three types of estimates. We treat each variable's own lags different from
other variables' lags, distinguish various lags over time, and is able to
select the variables and lags simultaneously. We first show the consequences of
using Lasso type estimate directly for time series without considering the
temporal dependence. In contrast, our proposed method can still produce an
estimate as efficient as an \textit{oracle} under such scenarios. The tuning
parameters are chosen via a data driven "rolling scheme" method to optimize the
forecasting performance. A macroeconomic and financial forecasting problem is
considered to illustrate its superiority over existing estimators
Discovering the hidden structure of financial markets through bayesian modelling
Understanding what is driving the price of a financial asset is a question that is currently mostly unanswered. In this work we go beyond the classic one step ahead prediction and instead construct models that create new information on the behaviour of these time series. Our aim is to get a better understanding of the hidden structures that drive the moves of each financial time series and thus the market as a whole.
We propose a tool to decompose multiple time series into economically-meaningful variables to explain the endogenous and exogenous factors driving their underlying variability. The methodology we introduce goes beyond the direct model forecast. Indeed, since our model continuously adapts its variables and coefficients, we can study the time series of coefficients and selected variables. We also present a model to construct the causal graph of relations between these time series and include them in the exogenous factors.
Hence, we obtain a model able to explain what is driving the move of both each specific time series and the market as a whole. In addition, the obtained graph of the time series provides new information on the underlying risk structure of this environment. With this deeper understanding of the hidden structure we propose novel ways to detect and forecast risks in the market. We investigate our results with inferences up to one month into the future using stocks, FX futures and ETF futures, demonstrating its superior performance according to accuracy of large moves, longer-term prediction and consistency over time. We also go in more details on the economic interpretation of the new variables and discuss the created graph structure of the market.Open Acces
Untangling hotel industry’s inefficiency: An SFA approach applied to a renowned Portuguese hotel chain
The present paper explores the technical efficiency of four hotels from Teixeira Duarte Group - a renowned Portuguese hotel chain. An efficiency ranking is established from these four hotel units located in Portugal using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. This methodology allows to discriminate between measurement error and systematic inefficiencies in the estimation process enabling to investigate the main inefficiency causes. Several suggestions concerning efficiency improvement are undertaken for each hotel studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Bayesian field theoretic reconstruction of bond potential and bond mobility in single molecule force spectroscopy
Quantifying the forces between and within macromolecules is a necessary first
step in understanding the mechanics of molecular structure, protein folding,
and enzyme function and performance. In such macromolecular settings, dynamic
single-molecule force spectroscopy (DFS) has been used to distort bonds. The
resulting responses, in the form of rupture forces, work applied, and
trajectories of displacements, have been used to reconstruct bond potentials.
Such approaches often rely on simple parameterizations of one-dimensional bond
potentials, assumptions on equilibrium starting states, and/or large amounts of
trajectory data. Parametric approaches typically fail at inferring
complex-shaped bond potentials with multiple minima, while piecewise estimation
may not guarantee smooth results with the appropriate behavior at large
distances. Existing techniques, particularly those based on work theorems, also
do not address spatial variations in the diffusivity that may arise from
spatially inhomogeneous coupling to other degrees of freedom in the
macromolecule, thereby presenting an incomplete picture of the overall bond
dynamics. To solve these challenges, we have developed a comprehensive
empirical Bayesian approach that incorporates data and regularization terms
directly into a path integral. All experiemental and statistical parameters in
our method are estimated empirically directly from the data. Upon testing our
method on simulated data, our regularized approach requires fewer data and
allows simultaneous inference of both complex bond potentials and diffusivity
profiles.Comment: In review - Python source code available on github. Abridged abstract
on arXi
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