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The aim of this paper is to develop estimation and inference methods for the drift parameters of multivariate L\'evy-driven continuous-time autoregressive processes of order $p\in\mathbb{N}$. Starting from a continuous-time observation of the process, we develop consistent and asymptotically normal maximum likelihood estimators. We then relax the unrealistic assumption of continuous-time observation by considering natural discretizations based on a combination of Riemann-sum, finite difference, and thresholding approximations. The resulting estimators are also proven to be consistent and asymptotically normal under a general set of conditions, allowing for both finite and infinite jump activity in the driving L\'evy process. When discretizing the estimators, allowing for irregularly spaced observations is of great practical importance. In this respect, CAR($p$) models are not just relevant for "true" continuous-time processes: a CAR($p$) specification provides a natural continuous-time interpolation for modeling irregularly spaced data - even if the observed process is inherently discrete. As a practically relevant application, we consider the setting where the multivariate observation is known to possess a graphical structure. We refer to such a process as GrCAR and discuss the corresponding drift estimators and their properties. The finite sample behavior of all theoretical asymptotic results is empirically assessed by extensive simulation experiments.

In this paper, we conduct a systematic large-scale analysis of order book-driven predictability in high-frequency returns by leveraging deep learning techniques. First, we introduce a new and robust representation of the order book, the volume representation. Next, we carry out an extensive empirical experiment to address various questions regarding predictability. We investigate if and how far ahead there is predictability, the importance of a robust data representation, the advantages of multi-horizon modeling, and the presence of universal trading patterns. We use model confidence sets, which provide a formalized statistical inference framework particularly well suited to answer these questions. Our findings show that at high frequencies predictability in mid-price returns is not just present, but ubiquitous. The performance of the deep learning models is strongly dependent on the choice of order book representation, and in this respect, the volume representation appears to have multiple practical advantages.

Uncertainty can be classified as either aleatoric (intrinsic randomness) or epistemic (imperfect knowledge of parameters). The majority of frameworks assessing infectious disease risk consider only epistemic uncertainty. We only ever observe a single epidemic, and therefore cannot empirically determine aleatoric uncertainty. Here, we characterise both epistemic and aleatoric uncertainty using a time-varying general branching process. Our framework explicitly decomposes aleatoric variance into mechanistic components, quantifying the contribution to uncertainty produced by each factor in the epidemic process, and how these contributions vary over time. The aleatoric variance of an outbreak is itself a renewal equation where past variance affects future variance. We find that, superspreading is not necessary for substantial uncertainty, and profound variation in outbreak size can occur even without overdispersion in the offspring distribution (i.e. the distribution of the number of secondary infections an infected person produces). Aleatoric forecasting uncertainty grows dynamically and rapidly, and so forecasting using only epistemic uncertainty is a significant underestimate. Therefore, failure to account for aleatoric uncertainty will ensure that policymakers are misled about the substantially higher true extent of potential risk. We demonstrate our method, and the extent to which potential risk is underestimated, using two historical examples.

We present a method for finding optimal hedging policies for arbitrary initial portfolios and market states. We develop a novel actor-critic algorithm for solving general risk-averse stochastic control problems and use it to learn hedging strategies across multiple risk aversion levels simultaneously. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach with a numerical example in a stochastic volatility environment.

We present a machine learning approach for finding minimal equivalent martingale measures for markets simulators of tradable instruments, e.g. for a spot price and options written on the same underlying. We extend our results to markets with frictions, in which case we find "near-martingale measures" under which the prices of hedging instruments are martingales within their bid/ask spread. By removing the drift, we are then able to learn using Deep Hedging a "clean" hedge for an exotic payoff which is not polluted by the trading strategy trying to make money from statistical arbitrage opportunities. We correspondingly highlight the robustness of this hedge vs estimation error of the original market simulator. We discuss applications to two market simulators., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures

In this article we will introduce the realised semicovariance for Brownian semistationary (BSS) processes, which is obtained from the decomposition of the realised covariance matrix into components based on the signs of the returns, and study its in-fill asymptotic properties. More precisely, a weak convergence in the space of c\`adl\`ag functions endowed with the Skorohod topology for the realised semicovariance of a general Gaussian process with stationary increments is proved first. The methods are based on Breuer-Major theorems and on a moment bound for sums of products of Gaussian vector's functions. Furthermore, we establish a corresponding stable convergence. Finally, a weak law of large numbers and a central limit theorem for the realised semicovariance of multivariate BSS processes are established. These results extend the limit theorems for the realised covariation to a result for non-linear functionals.

We present a measurement of price impact in order-driven markets that does not require averages across executions or scenarios. Given the order book data associated with one single execution of a sell metaorder, we measure its contribution to price decrease during the trade. We do so by modelling the limit order book using state-dependent Hawkes processes, and by defining the price impact profile of the execution as a function of the compensator of a stochastic process in our model. We apply our measurement to a data set from NASDAQ, and we conclude that the clustering of sell child orders has a bigger impact on price than their sizes.

Renewal equations are a popular approach used in modelling the number of new infections, i.e., incidence, in an outbreak. We develop a stochastic model of an outbreak based on a time-varying variant of the Crump-Mode-Jagers branching process. This model accommodates a time-varying reproduction number and a time-varying distribution for the generation interval. We then derive renewal-like integral equations for incidence, cumulative incidence and prevalence under this model. We show that the equations for incidence and prevalence are consistent with the so-called back-calculation relationship. We analyse two particular cases of these integral equations, one that arises from a Bellman-Harris process and one that arises from an inhomogeneous Poisson process model of transmission. We also show that the incidence integral equations that arise from both of these specific models agree with the renewal equation used ubiquitously in infectious disease modelling. We present a numerical discretisation scheme to solve these equations, and use this scheme to estimate rates of transmission from serological prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK and historical incidence data on Influenza, Measles, SARS and Smallpox., Comment: 35 pages, 4 figures, v4: major revision, including a new argument for the equivalence of incidence equations

We present a numerically efficient approach for learning a risk-neutral measure for paths of simulated spot and option prices up to a finite horizon under convex transaction costs and convex trading constraints. This approach can then be used to implement a stochastic implied volatility model in the following two steps: 1. Train a market simulator for option prices, as discussed for example in our recent; 2. Find a risk-neutral density, specifically the minimal entropy martingale measure. The resulting model can be used for risk-neutral pricing, or for Deep Hedging in the case of transaction costs or trading constraints. To motivate the proposed approach, we also show that market dynamics are free from "statistical arbitrage" in the absence of transaction costs if and only if they follow a risk-neutral measure. We additionally provide a more general characterization in the presence of convex transaction costs and trading constraints. These results can be seen as an analogue of the fundamental theorem of asset pricing for statistical arbitrage under trading frictions and are of independent interest.

We develop a GMM approach for estimation of log-normal stochastic volatility models driven by a fractional Brownian motion with unrestricted Hurst exponent. We show that a parameter estimator based on the integrated variance is consistent and, under stronger conditions, asymptotically normally distributed. We inspect the behavior of our procedure when integrated variance is replaced with a noisy measure of volatility calculated from discrete high-frequency data. The realized estimator contains sampling error, which skews the fractal coefficient toward "illusive roughness." We construct an analytical approach to control the impact of measurement error without introducing nuisance parameters. In a simulation study, we demonstrate convincing small sample properties of our approach based both on integrated and realized variance over the entire memory spectrum. We show the bias correction attenuates any systematic deviance in the parameter estimates. Our procedure is applied to empirical high-frequency data from numerous leading equity indexes. With our robust approach the Hurst index is estimated around 0.05, confirming roughness in stochastic volatility., Comment: 52 pages, 5 figures, v4: title of previous version in footnote corrected

In this work we derive limit theorems for trawl processes. First,we study the asymptotic behaviour of the partial sums of the discretized trawl process $(X_{i\Delta_{n}})_{i=0}^{\lfloor nt\rfloor-1}$, under the assumption that as $n\uparrow\infty$, $\Delta_{n}\downarrow0$ and $n\Delta_{n}\rightarrow\mu\in[0,+\infty]$. Second, we derive a functional limit theorem for trawl processes as the L\'{e}vy measure of the trawl seed grows to infinity and show that the limiting process has a Gaussian moving average representation., Comment: 35 pages

This article studies the finite sample behaviour of a number of estimators for the integrated power volatility process of a Brownian semistationary process in the non semi-martingale setting. We establish three consistent feasible estimators for the integrated volatility, two derived from parametric methods and one non-parametrically. We then use a simulation study to compare the convergence properties of the estimators to one another, and to a benchmark of an infeasible estimator. We further establish bounds for the asymptotic variance of the infeasible estimator and assess whether a central limit theorem which holds for the infeasible estimator can be translated into a feasible limit theorem for the non-parametric estimator., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures

Stochastic processes provide a mathematically elegant way model complex data. In theory, they provide flexible priors over function classes that can encode a wide range of interesting assumptions. In practice, however, efficient inference by optimisation or marginalisation is difficult, a problem further exacerbated with big data and high dimensional input spaces. We propose a novel variational autoencoder (VAE) called the prior encoding variational autoencoder ($\pi$VAE). The $\pi$VAE is finitely exchangeable and Kolmogorov consistent, and thus is a continuous stochastic process. We use $\pi$VAE to learn low dimensional embeddings of function classes. We show that our framework can accurately learn expressive function classes such as Gaussian processes, but also properties of functions to enable statistical inference (such as the integral of a log Gaussian process). For popular tasks, such as spatial interpolation, $\pi$VAE achieves state-of-the-art performance both in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. Perhaps most usefully, we demonstrate that the low dimensional independently distributed latent space representation learnt provides an elegant and scalable means of performing Bayesian inference for stochastic processes within probabilistic programming languages such as Stan.

We study statistical aspects of state-dependent Hawkes processes, which are an extension of Hawkes processes where a self- and cross-exciting counting process and a state process are fully coupled, interacting with each other. The excitation kernel of the counting process depends on the state process that, reciprocally, switches state when there is an event in the counting process. We first establish the existence and uniqueness of state-dependent Hawkes processes and explain how they can be simulated. Then we develop maximum likelihood estimation methodology for parametric specifications of the process. We apply state-dependent Hawkes processes to high-frequency limit order book data, allowing us to build a novel model that captures the feedback loop between the order flow and the shape of the limit order book. We estimate two specifications of the model, using the bid-ask spread and the queue imbalance as state variables, and find that excitation effects in the order flow are strongly state-dependent. Additionally, we find that the endogeneity of the order flow, measured by the magnitude of excitation, is also state-dependent, being more pronounced in disequilibrium states of the limit order book., Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, v3: added a comparison with other related models plus some other minor amendments, to appear in Quantitative Finance

We develop a simulation scheme for a class of spatial stochastic processes called volatility modulated moving averages. A characteristic feature of this model is that the behaviour of the moving average kernel at zero governs the roughness of realisations, whereas its behaviour away from zero determines the global properties of the process, such as long range dependence. Our simulation scheme takes this into account and approximates the moving average kernel by a power function around zero and by a step function elsewhere. For this type of approach the authors of [8], who considered an analogous model in one dimension, coined the expression hybrid simulation scheme. We derive the asymptotic mean square error of the simulation scheme and compare it in a simulation study with several other simulation techniques and exemplify its favourable performance in a simulation study.

The rough Bergomi model, introduced by Bayer, Friz and Gatheral [Quant. Finance 16(6), 887-904, 2016], is one of the recent rough volatility models that are consistent with the stylised fact of implied volatility surfaces being essentially time-invariant, and are able to capture the term structure of skew observed in equity markets. In the absence of analytical European option pricing methods for the model, we focus on reducing the runtime-adjusted variance of Monte Carlo implied volatilities, thereby contributing to the model's calibration by simulation. We employ a novel composition of variance reduction methods, immediately applicable to any conditionally log-normal stochastic volatility model. Assuming one targets implied volatility estimates with a given degree of confidence, thus calibration RMSE, the results we demonstrate equate to significant runtime reductions - roughly 20 times on average, across different correlation regimes., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, v3: minor amendments and reformatted

We introduce a class of hybrid marked point processes, which encompasses and extends continuous-time Markov chains and Hawkes processes. While this flexible class amalgamates such existing processes, it also contains novel processes with complex dynamics. These processes are defined implicitly via their intensity and are endowed with a state process that interacts with past-dependent events. The key example we entertain is an extension of a Hawkes process, a state-dependent Hawkes process interacting with its state process. We show the existence and uniqueness of hybrid marked point processes under general assumptions, extending the results of Massouli\'e (1998) on interacting point processes., Comment: v6: introduction updated with reference to application of state-dependent Hawkes processes

We study the small-time behaviour of the rough Bergomi model, introduced by Bayer, Friz and Gatheral (2016), and prove a large deviations principle for a rescaled version of the normalised log stock price process, which then allows us to characterise the small-time behaviour of the implied volatility., Comment: 12 Pages

We introduce a new class of continuous-time models of the stochastic volatility of asset prices. The models can simultaneously incorporate roughness and slowly decaying autocorrelations, including proper long memory, which are two stylized facts often found in volatility data. Our prime model is based on the so-called Brownian semistationary process and we derive a number of theoretical properties of this process, relevant to volatility modeling. Applying the models to realized volatility measures covering a vast panel of assets, we find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that time series of realized measures of volatility are both rough and very persistent. Lastly, we illustrate the utility of the models in an extensive forecasting study; we find that the models proposed in this paper outperform a wide array of benchmarks considerably, indicating that it pays off to exploit both roughness and persistence in volatility forecasting., Comment: 48 pages, 7 figures, v3: major revision with increased emphasis on noise-robust estimation, to appear in Journal of Financial Econometrics

We introduce a bootstrap procedure for high-frequency statistics of Brownian semistationary processes. More specifically, we focus on a hypothesis test on the roughness of sample paths of Brownian semistationary processes, which uses an estimator based on a ratio of realized power variations. Our new resampling method, the local fractional bootstrap, relies on simulating an auxiliary fractional Brownian motion that mimics the fine properties of high frequency differences of the Brownian semistationary process under the null hypothesis. We prove the first order validity of the bootstrap method and in simulations we observe that the bootstrap-based hypothesis test provides considerable finite-sample improvements over an existing test that is based on a central limit theorem. This is important when studying the roughness properties of time series data; we illustrate this by applying the bootstrap method to two empirical data sets: we assess the roughness of a time series of high-frequency asset prices and we test the validity of Kolmogorov's scaling law in atmospheric turbulence data.

We show that a trader, who starts with no initial wealth and is not allowed to borrow money or short sell assets, is theoretically able to attain positive wealth by continuous trading, provided that she has perfect foresight of future asset prices, given by a continuous semimartingale. Such an arbitrage strategy can be constructed as a process of finite variation that satisfies a seemingly innocuous self-financing condition, formulated using a pathwise Riemann-Stieltjes integral. Our result exemplifies the potential intricacies of formulating economically meaningful self-financing conditions in continuous time, when one leaves the conventional arbitrage-free framework., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, v2: minor revision, to appear in Mathematics and Financial Economics

We study whether a multivariate L\'evy-driven moving average process can shadow arbitrarily closely any continuous path, starting from the present value of the process, with positive conditional probability, which we call the conditional small ball property. Our main results establish the conditional small ball property for L\'evy-driven moving average processes under natural non-degeneracy conditions on the kernel function of the process and on the driving L\'evy process. We discuss in depth how to verify these conditions in practice. As concrete examples, to which our results apply, we consider fractional L\'evy processes and multivariate L\'evy-driven Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes., Comment: 33 pages, 1 figure, v2: new section on L\'evy mixing and minor improvements, to appear in SPA

We introduce a simulation scheme for Brownian semistationary processes, which is based on discretizing the stochastic integral representation of the process in the time domain. We assume that the kernel function of the process is regularly varying at zero. The novel feature of the scheme is to approximate the kernel function by a power function near zero and by a step function elsewhere. The resulting approximation of the process is a combination of Wiener integrals of the power function and a Riemann sum, which is why we call this method a hybrid scheme. Our main theoretical result describes the asymptotics of the mean square error of the hybrid scheme and we observe that the scheme leads to a substantial improvement of accuracy compared to the ordinary forward Riemann-sum scheme, while having the same computational complexity. We exemplify the use of the hybrid scheme by two numerical experiments, where we examine the finite-sample properties of an estimator of the roughness parameter of a Brownian semistationary process and study Monte Carlo option pricing in the rough Bergomi model of Bayer et al. [Quant. Finance 16(6), 887-904, 2016], respectively., Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures, v4: minor revision, in particular we have derived a new expression (3.5), equivalent to the previous one but numerically more convenient, for the off-diagonal elements of the covariance matrix Sigma

Motivated by the construction of the It\^o stochastic integral, we consider a step function method to discretize and simulate volatility modulated L\'evy semistationary processes. Moreover, we assess the accuracy of the method with a particular focus on integrating kernels with a singularity at the origin. Using the simulation method, we study the finite sample properties of some recently developed estimators of realized volatility and associated parametric estimators for Brownian semistationary processes. Although the theoretical properties of these estimators have been established under high frequency asymptotics, it turns out that the estimators perform well also in a low frequency setting.

We prove functional central and non-central limit theorems for generalized variations of the anisotropic $d$-parameter fractional Brownian sheet (fBs) for any natural number $d$. Whether the central or the non-central limit theorem applies depends on the Hermite rank of the variation functional and on the smallest component of the Hurst parameter vector of the fBs. The limiting process in the former result is another fBs, independent of the original fBs, whereas the limit given by the latter result is an Hermite sheet, which is driven by the same white noise as the original fBs. As an application, we derive functional limit theorems for power variations of the fBs and discuss what is a proper way to interpolate them to ensure functional convergence., Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/15-BEJ707 in the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm)

Under proportional transaction costs, a price process is said to have a consistent price system, if there is a semimartingale with an equivalent martingale measure that evolves within the bid-ask spread. We show that a continuous, multi-asset price process has a consistent price system, under arbitrarily small proportional transaction costs, if it satisfies a natural multi-dimensional generalization of the stickiness condition introduced by Guasoni [Math. Finance 16(3), 569-582 (2006)]., Comment: 10 pages, v3: incorporates minor corrections and the proof of the main result has been clarified, to appear in Journal of Applied Probability

We introduce the notion of relative volatility/intermittency and demonstrate how relative volatility statistics can be used to estimate consistently the temporal variation of volatility/intermittency when the data of interest are generated by a non-semimartingale, or a Brownian semistationary process in particular. This estimation method is motivated by the assessment of relative energy dissipation in empirical data of turbulence, but it is also applicable in other areas. We develop a probabilistic asymptotic theory for realised relative power variations of Brownian semistationary processes, and introduce inference methods based on the theory. We also discuss how to extend the asymptotic theory to other classes of processes exhibiting stochastic volatility/intermittency. As an empirical application, we study relative energy dissipation in data of atmospheric turbulence., Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, v3: major revision, this version contains an application to electricity prices that was omitted from the published version

We study the asymptotics of lattice power variations of two-parameter ambit fields driven by white noise. Our first result is a law of large numbers for power variations. Under a constraint on the memory of the ambit field, normalized power variations converge to certain integral functionals of the volatility field associated to the ambit field, when the lattice spacing tends to zero. This result holds also for thinned power variations that are computed by only including increments that are separated by gaps with a particular asymptotic behavior. Our second result is a stable central limit theorem for thinned power variations., Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures, v4: several improvements, including new remarks on the underlying ambit field and on a more general observation scheme

This paper presents some asymptotic results for statistics of Brownian semi-stationary (BSS) processes. More precisely, we consider power variations of BSS processes, which are based on high frequency (possibly higher order) differences of the BSS model. We review the limit theory discussed in [Barndorff-Nielsen, O.E., J.M. Corcuera and M. Podolskij (2011): Multipower variation for Brownian semistationary processes. Bernoulli 17(4), 1159-1194; Barndorff-Nielsen, O.E., J.M. Corcuera and M. Podolskij (2012): Limit theorems for functionals of higher order differences of Brownian semi-stationary processes. In "Prokhorov and Contemporary Probability Theory", Springer.] and present some new connections to fractional diffusion models. We apply our probabilistic results to construct a family of estimators for the smoothness parameter of the BSS process. In this context we develop estimates with gaps, which allow to obtain a valid central limit theorem for the critical region. Finally, we apply our statistical theory to turbulence data., Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures

We study the question, whether a Riemann-Stieltjes integral of a positive continuous function with respect to a non-negative function of bounded variation is positive., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, v2: the formulation of Theorem 1 fixed

In this note, we study the infinite-dimensional conditional laws of Brownian semistationary processes. Motivated by the fact that these processes are typically not semimartingales, we present sufficient conditions ensuring that a Brownian semistationary process has conditional full support, a property introduced by Guasoni, R\'asonyi, and Schachermayer [Ann. Appl. Probab., 18 (2008) pp. 491--520]. By the results of Guasoni, R\'asonyi, and Schachermayer, this property has two important implications. It ensures, firstly, that the process admits no free lunches under proportional transaction costs, and secondly, that it can be approximated pathwise (in the sup norm) by semimartingales that admit equivalent martingale measures., Comment: 7 pages

We formulate a sufficient condition for the existence of a consistent price system (CPS), which is weaker than the conditional full support condition (CFS) introduced by Guasoni, Rasonyi, and Schachermayer [Ann. Appl. Probab., 18(2008), pp. 491-520] . We use the new condition to show the existence of CPSs for certain processes that fail to have the CFS property. In particular this condition gives sufficient conditions, under which a continuous function of a process with CFS admits a CPS, while the CFS property might be lost., Comment: To appear in "Stochastic Analysis and Applications". Keywords: Consistent pricing systems, No-arbitrage, Transaction costs, Full support, Conditional Full Support, Stability under Composition with Continuous Functions

We present conditions that imply the conditional full support (CFS) property, introduced by Guasoni, R\'asonyi, and Schachermayer [Ann. Appl. Probab., 18 (2008), pp. 491--520], for processes Z := H + K \cdot W, where W is a Brownian motion, H is a continuous process, and processes H and K are either progressive or independent of W. Moreover, in the latter case under an additional assumption that K is of finite variation, we present conditions under which Z has CFS also when W is replaced with a general continuous process with CFS. As applications of these results, we show that several stochastic volatility models and the solutions of certain stochastic differential equations have CFS., Comment: 19 pages, v3: almost entirely rewritten, new results