Modeling and Forecasting Realized Volatility with Multivariate Fractional Brownian Motion

Abstract

A multivariate fractional Brownian motion (mfBm) with component-wise Hurst exponents is used to model and forecast realized volatility (RV). We investigate the interplay between correlation coefficients and Hurst exponents and propose a novel method to estimate model parameters, establishing its consistency and asymptotic normality. Additionally, we develop a time-reversibility test, which is typically not rejected by RV data. When the data generating process is a time-reversible mfBm, we derive optimal forecasting formulae and analyze their properties. A key insight is that an mfBm with different Hurst exponents and non-zero correlations can reduce forecasting errors compared to a one-dimensional model. Consistent with this theory, out-of-sample forecasts using the time-reversible mfBm show improvements over univariate fBm, particularly when the estimated Hurst exponents differ significantly. Empirical results demonstrate that mfBm outperforms HAR and its variants in terms of out-of-sample forecast.