Particle Efficient Importance Sampling

The efficient importance sampling (EIS) method is a general principle for the numerical evaluation of high-dimensional integrals that uses the sequential structure of target integrands to build variance minimising importance samplers. Despite a number of successful applications in high dimensions, it is well known that importance sampling strategies are subject to an exponential growth in variance as the dimension of the integration increases. We solve this problem by recognising that the EIS framework has an offline sequential Monte Carlo interpretation. The particle EIS method is based on non-standard resampling weights that take into account the look-ahead construction of the importance sampler. We apply the method for a range of univariate and bivariate stochastic volatility specifications. We also develop a new application of the EIS approach to state space models with Student's t state innovations. Our results show that the particle EIS method strongly outperforms both the standard EIS method and particle filters for likelihood evaluation in high dimensions. Moreover, the ratio between the variances of the particle EIS and particle filter methods remains stable as the time series dimension increases. We illustrate the efficiency of the method for Bayesian inference using the particle marginal Metropolis-Hastings and importance sampling squared algorithms

Asymmetric effects and long memory in the volatility of Dow Jones stocks

Does volatility reflect a continuous reaction to past shocks or changes in the markets induce shifts in the volatility dynamics? In this paper, we provide empirical evidence that cumulated price variations convey meaningful information about multiple regimes in the realized volatility of stocks, where large falls (rises) in prices are linked to persistent regimes of high (low) variance in stock returns. Incorporating past cumulated daily returns as a explanatory variable in a flexible and systematic nonlinear framework, we estimate that falls of different magnitudes over less than two months are associated with volatility levels 20% and 60% higher than the average of periods with stable or rising prices. We show that this effect accounts for large empirical values of long memory parameter estimates. Finally, we analyze that the proposed model significantly improves out of sample performance in relation to standard methods. This result is more pronounced in periods of high volatility.Realized volatility, long memory, nonlinear models, asymmetric effects, regime switching, regression trees, smooth transition, value-at-risk, forecasting, empirical finance.

"Realized Volatility Risk"

In this paper we document that realized variation measures constructed from high-frequency returns reveal a large degree of volatility risk in stock and index returns, where we characterize volatility risk by the extent to which forecasting errors in realized volatility are substantive. Even though returns standardized by ex post quadratic variation measures are nearly gaussian, this unpredictability brings considerably more uncertainty to the empirically relevant ex ante distribution of returns. Carefully modeling this volatility risk is fundamental. We propose a dually asymmetric realized volatility (DARV) model, which incorporates the important fact that realized volatility series are systematically more volatile in high volatility periods. Returns in this framework display time varying volatility, skewness and kurtosis. We provide a detailed account of the empirical advantages of the model using data on the S&P 500 index and eight other indexes and stocks.

Realized Volatility Risk

In this paper we document that realized variation measures constructed from high- frequency returns reveal a large degree of volatility risk in stock and index returns, where we characterize volatility risk by the extent to which forecasting errors in realized volatility are substantive. Even though returns standardized by ex post quadratic variation measures are nearly gaussian, this unpredictability brings considerably more uncertainty to the empirically relevant ex ante distribution of returns. Carefully modeling this volatility risk is fundamental. We propose a dually asymmetric realized volatility (DARV) model, which incorporates the important fact that realized volatility series are systematically more volatile in high volatility periods. Returns in this framework display time varying volatility, skewness and kurtosis. We provide a detailed account of the empirical advantages of the model using data on the S&P 500 index and eight other indexes and stocks.Realized volatility; volatility of volatility; volatility risk; value-at-risk; forecasting; conditional heteroskedasticity

Realized Volatility Risk

In this paper we document that realized variation measures constructed from high-frequency returns reveal a large degree of volatility risk in stock and index returns, where we characterize volatility risk by the extent to which forecasting errors in realized volatility are substantive. Even though returns standardized by ex post quadratic variation measures are nearly gaussian, this unpredictability brings considerably more uncertainty to the empirically relevant ex ante distribution of returns. Carefully modeling this volatility risk is fundamental. We propose a dually asymmetric realized volatility (DARV) model, which incorporates the important fact that realized volatility series are systematically more volatile in high volatility periods. Returns in this framework display time varying volatility, skewness and kurtosis. We provide a detailed account of the empirical advantages of the model using data on the S&P 500 index and eight other indexes and stocks.

Realized volatility uncertainty

The presence of high and time-varying volatility of volatility and leverage effects bring additional uncertainty in the tails of the distribution of asset returns, even though returns standardized by (ex-post) quadratic variation measures are nearly gaussian. We argue that in this setting modeling shocks to volatility is more relevant for applications than extracting more precise predictions of the variable, as point forecasts differences are swamped by the size of the volatility of volatility and rendered less informative by the nongaussianity in the ex-ante distribution of returns. Using S&P 500 data, we document that this volatility of volatility is subject to strong leverage effects, short-lived explosive regimes and is strongly and positively related to the level of volatility. Starting from a mixing hypothesis for volatility and returns, we propose a Monte Carlo method for translating these features into refined density forecasts for returns from our conditional volatility, skewness and kurtosis framework. We show how this method brings large improvements over traditional approaches for density and risk forecasting

REALIZED VOLATILITY RISK

In this paper we show that realized variation measures constructed from high- frequency returns reveal a large degree of volatility risk in stock and index returns, where we characterize volatility risk by the extent to which forecasting errors in realized volatility are substantive. Even though returns standardized by ex post quadratic variation measures are nearly Gaussian, this unpredictability brings greater uncertainty to the empirically relevant ex ante distribution of returns. Explicitly modeling this volatility risk is fundamental. We propose a dually asymmetric realized volatility model, which incorporates the fact that realized volatility series are systematically more volatile in high volatility periods. Returns in this framework display time varying volatility, skewness and kurtosis. We provide a detailed account of the empirical advantages of the model using data on the S&P 500 index and eight other indexes and stocks.Realized volatility, volatility of volatility, volatility risk, value-at-risk, forecasting, conditional heteroskedasticity.