Nonparametric tests for pathwise properties of semimartingales
Abstract
We propose two nonparametric tests for investigating the pathwise properties of a signal modeled as the sum of a L\'{e}vy process and a Brownian semimartingale. Using a nonparametric threshold estimator for the continuous component of the quadratic variation, we design a test for the presence of a continuous martingale component in the process and a test for establishing whether the jumps have finite or infinite variation, based on observations on a discrete-time grid. We evaluate the performance of our tests using simulations of various stochastic models and use the tests to investigate the fine structure of the DM/USD exchange rate fluctuations and SPX futures prices. In both cases, our tests reveal the presence of a non-zero Brownian component and a finite variation jump component.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1104.4429,
title = {Nonparametric tests for pathwise properties of semimartingales},
author = {Rama Cont and Cecilia Mancini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1104.4429},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/10-BEJ293 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm)