Multifractal Volatility: Theory, Forecasting, and Pricing(Academic Press Advanced Finance)

Calvet and Fisher present a powerful, new technique for volatility forecasting that draws on insights from the use of multifractals in the natural sciences and mathematics and provides a unified treatment of the use of multifractal techniques in finance. A large existing literature (e.g., Engle, 1982; Rossi, 1995) models volatility as an average of past shocks, possibly with a noise component. This approach often has difficulty capturing sharp discontinuities and large changes in financial volatility. Their research has shown the advantages of modelling volatility as subject to abrupt regime changes of heterogeneous durations. Using the intuition that some economic phenomena are long-lasting while others are more transient, they permit regimes to have varying degrees of persistence. By drawing on insights from the use of multifractals in the natural sciences and mathematics, they show how to construct high-dimensional regime-switching models that are easy to estimate, and substantially outperform some of the best traditional forecasting models such as GARCH. The goal of their book is to popularize the approach by presenting these exciting new developments to a wider audience. They emphasize both theoretical and empirical applications, beginning with a style that is easily accessible and intuitive in early chapters, and extending to the most rigorous continuous-time and equilibrium pricing formulations in final chapters. A Presents a powerful new technique for forecasting volatility A Leads the reader intuitively from existing volatility techniques to the frontier of research in this field by top scholars at major universities. A The first comprehensive book on multifractal techniques in finance, a cutting-edge field of research

Review :
Advance Praise for Multifractal Volitility I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and highly recommend it. The authors masterfully present their work on the Markov-Switching Multifractal model and its implications for Asset Pricing. This is a wonderful contribution to the field of Financial Economics.? -Ravi Bansal, J.B. Fuqua Professor of Finance, Duke University Durham, NC I have always been intrigued by the multi-fractal approach to volatility modeling, forecasting and pricing pioneered by Calvet and Fisher. This book does a wonderful job in gathering together all of the fundamental ideas and results in a coherent framework, and I highly recommend it to anybody interested in learning more about these novel techniques and how they compare to the more traditional GARCH and stochastic volatility based modeling procedures.? -Tim Bollerslev, Juanita and Clifton Kreps Professor of Economics, Duke University, NC This starkly original work defines a key part of the research frontier, developing a multifractal perspective on volatility that unifies regime-switching and long memory, in discrete and continuous time, univariate and multivariate. Simultaneously and astonishingly, it is of immediate practical relevance for asset management, asset pricing and risk management. This book is required reading, for academics and practitioners alike.? -Francis X. Diebold, J.M. Cohen Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania "Calvet and Fisher have fashioned the definitive treatment of multi-fractal models of return volatility. Since Mandelbrot first challenged the standard paradigm, evidence supporting the parsiomony and flexibility of the multifractal approach has accumulated. Calvet and Fisher are uniquely positioned to finally unify this progress, much of which is based on their own research. The result is masterful and convincing, particularly for capturing return risk over multiple time horizons. I highly recommend their book."