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 Lévy 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.

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)

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• Testing for jumps in a discretely observed process
• Estimating the degree of activity of jumps in high frequency data
• The Euler scheme for Levy driven stochastic differential equations: limit theorems