arXiv subjects

Rudi Schäfer

Publications and source records attributed to Rudi Schäfer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2017

Concurrent Credit Portfolio Losses

We consider the problem of concurrent portfolio losses in two non-overlapping credit portfolios. In order to explore the full statistical dependence structure of such portfolio losses, we estimate their empirical pairwise copulas. Instead of a Gaussian dependence, we typically find a strong asymmetry in the copulas. Concurrent large portfolio losses are much more likely than small ones. Studying the dependences of these losses as a function of portfolio size, we moreover reveal that not only large portfolios of thousands of contracts, but also medium-sized and small ones with only a few dozens of contracts exhibit notable portfolio loss correlations. Anticipated idiosyncratic effects turn out to be negligible. These are troublesome insights not only for investors in structured fixed-income products, but particularly for the stability of the financial sector.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2016

Average cross-responses in correlated financial market

There are non-vanishing price responses across different stocks in correlated financial markets. We further study this issue by performing different averages, which identify active and passive cross-responses. The two average cross-responses show different characteristic dependences on the time lag. The passive cross-response exhibits a shorter response period with sizeable volatilities, while the corresponding period for the active cross-response is longer. The average cross-responses for a given stock are evaluated either with respect to the whole market or to different sectors. Using the response strength, the influences of individual stocks are identified and discussed. Moreover, the various cross-responses as well as the average cross-responses are compared with the self-responses. In contrast, the short memory of trade sign cross-correlation for stock pairs, the sign cross-correlation has long memory when averaged over different pairs of stocks.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2016

Cross-response in correlated financial markets: individual stocks

Previous studies of the stock price response to trades focused on the dynamics of single stocks, i.e. they addressed the self-response. We empirically investigate the price response of one stock to the trades of other stocks in a correlated market, i.e. the cross-responses. How large is the impact of one stock on others and vice versa? -- This impact of trades on the price change across stocks appears to be transient instead of permanent as we discuss from the viewpoint of market efficiency. Furthermore, we compare the self-responses on different scales and the self- and cross-responses on the same scale. We also find that the cross-correlation of the trade signs turns out to be a short-memory process.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2016

Price response in correlated financial markets: empirical results

Previous studies of the stock price response to individual trades focused on single stocks. We empirically investigate the price response of one stock to the trades of other stocks. How large is the impact of one stock on others and vice versa? -- This impact of trades on the price change across stocks appears to be transient instead of permanent. Performing different averages, we distinguish active and passive responses. The two average responses show different characteristic dependences on the time lag. The passive response exhibits a shorter response period with sizeable volatilities, and the active response a longer period. We also study the response for a given stock with respect to different sectors and to the whole market. Furthermore, we compare the self-response with the various cross-responses. The correlation of the trade signs is a short-memory process for a pair of stocks, but it turns into a long-memory process when averaged over different pairs of stocks.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2016

Credit risk: Taking fluctuating asset correlations into account

In structural credit risk models, default events and the ensuing losses are both derived from the asset values at maturity. Hence it is of utmost importance to choose a distribution for these asset values which is in accordance with empirical data. At the same time, it is desirable to still preserve some analytical tractability. We achieve both goals by putting forward an ensemble approach for the asset correlations. Consistently with the data, we view them as fluctuating quantities, for which we may choose the average correlation as homogeneous. Thereby we can reduce the number of parameters to two, the average correlation between assets and the strength of the fluctuations around this average value. Yet, the resulting asset value distribution describes the empirical data well. This allows us to derive the distribution of credit portfolio losses. With Monte-Carlo simulations for the Value at Risk and Expected Tail Loss we validate the assumptions of our approach and demonstrate the necessity of taking fluctuating correlations into account.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2015

Quantile Correlations: Uncovering temporal dependencies in financial time series

We conduct an empirical study using the quantile-based correlation function to uncover the temporal dependencies in financial time series. The study uses intraday data for the S\&P 500 stocks from the New York Stock Exchange. After establishing an empirical overview we compare the quantile-based correlation function to stochastic processes from the GARCH family and find striking differences. This motivates us to propose the quantile-based correlation function as a powerful tool to assess the agreements between stochastic processes and empirical data.

q-fin.GN↗

arXiv2015

Constructing Analytically Tractable Ensembles of Non-Stationary Covariances with an Application to Financial Data

In complex systems, crucial parameters are often subject to unpredictable changes in time. Climate, biological evolution and networks provide numerous examples for such non-stationarities. In many cases, improved statistical models are urgently called for. In a general setting, we study systems of correlated quantities to which we refer as amplitudes. We are interested in the case of non-stationarity, i.e., seemingly random covariances. We present a general method to derive the distribution of the covariances from the distribution of the amplitudes. To ensure analytical tractability, we construct a properly deformed Wishart ensemble of random matrices. We apply our method to financial returns where the wealth of data allows us to carry out statistically significant tests. The ensemble that we find is characterized by an algebraic distribution which improves the understanding of large events.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2015

Dependence structure of market states

We study the dependence structure of market states by estimating empirical pairwise copulas of daily stock returns. We consider both original returns, which exhibit time-varying trends and volatilities, as well as locally normalized ones, where the non-stationarity has been removed. The empirical pairwise copula for each state is compared with a bivariate K-copula. This copula arises from a recently introduced random matrix model, in which non-stationary correlations between returns are modeled by an ensemble of random matrices. The comparison reveals overall good agreement between empirical and analytical copulas, especially for locally normalized returns. Still, there are some deviations in the tails. Furthermore, we find an asymmetry in the dependence structure of market states. The empirical pairwise copulas exhibit a stronger lower tail dependence, particularly in times of crisis.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2015

Impact of non-stationarity on estimating and modeling empirical copulas of daily stock returns

All too often measuring statistical dependencies between financial time series is reduced to a linear correlation coefficient. However this may not capture all facets of reality. We study empirical dependencies of daily stock returns by their pairwise copulas. Here we investigate particularly to which extent the non-stationarity of financial time series affects both the estimation and the modeling of empirical copulas. We estimate empirical copulas from the non-stationary, original return time series and stationary, locally normalized ones. Thereby we are able to explore the empirical dependence structure on two different scales: a global and a local one. Additionally the asymmetry of the empirical copulas is emphasized as a fundamental characteristic. We compare our empirical findings with a single Gaussian copula, with a correlation-weighted average of Gaussian copulas, with the K-copula directly addressing the non-stationarity of dependencies as a model parameter, and with the skewed Student's t-copula. The K-copula covers the empirical dependence structure on the local scale most adequately, whereas the skewed Student's t-copula best captures the asymmetry of the empirical copula on the global scale.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2015

Compounding approach for univariate time series with non-stationary variances

A defining feature of non-stationary systems is the time dependence of their statistical parameters. Measured time series may exhibit Gaussian statistics on short time horizons, due to the central limit theorem. The sample statistics for long time horizons, however, averages over the time-dependent parameters. To model the long-term statistical behavior, we compound the local distribution with the distribution of its parameters. Here we consider two concrete, but diverse examples of such non-stationary systems, the turbulent air flow of a fan and a time series of foreign exchange rates. Our main focus is to empirically determine the appropriate parameter distribution for the compounding approach. To this end we have to estimate the parameter distribution for univariate time series in a highly non-stationary situation.

physics.data-an↗

arXiv2015

Stability and Hierarchy of Quasi-Stationary States: Financial Markets as an Example

We combine geometric data analysis and stochastic modeling to describe the collective dynamics of complex systems. As an example we apply this approach to financial data and focus on the non-stationarity of the market correlation structure. We identify the dominating variable and extract its explicit stochastic model. This allows us to establish a connection between its time evolution and known historical events on the market. We discuss the dynamics, the stability and the hierarchy of the recently proposed quasi-stationary market states.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2015

Dynamics of quasi-stationary systems: Finance as an example

We propose a combination of cluster analysis and stochastic process analysis to characterize high-dimensional complex dynamical systems by few dominating variables. As an example, stock market data are analyzed for which the dynamical stability as well as transitions between different stable states are found. This combined method also allows to set up new criteria for merging clusters to simplify the complexity of the system. The low-dimensional approach allows to recover the high-dimensional fixed points of the system by means of an optimization procedure.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2015

Equilibrium Pricing in an Order Book Environment: Case Study for a Spin Model

When modelling stock market dynamics, the price formation is often based on an equilbrium mechanism. In real stock exchanges, however, the price formation is goverend by the order book. It is thus interesting to check if the resulting stylized facts of a model with equilibrium pricing change, remain the same or, more generally, are compatible with the order book environment. We tackle this issue in the framework of a case study by embedding the Bornholdt-Kaizoji-Fujiwara spin model into the order book dynamics. To this end, we use a recently developed agent based model that realistically incorporates the order book. We find realistic stylized facts. We conclude for the studied case that equilibrium pricing is not needed and that the corresponding assumption of a "fundamental" price may be abandoned.

q-fin.CP↗

arXiv2014

Zooming into market states

We analyze the daily stock data of the Nasdaq Composite index in the 22-year period 1992-2013 and identify market states as clusters of correlation matrices with similar correlation structures. We investigate the stability of the correlation structure of each state by estimating the statistical fluctuations of correlations due to their non-stationarity. Our study is based on a random matrix approach recently introduced to model the non-stationarity of correlations by an ensemble of random matrices. This approach reduces the complexity of the correlated market to a single parameter which characterizes the fluctuations of the correlations and can be determined directly from the empirical return distributions. This parameter provides an insight into the stability of the correlation structure of each market state as well as into the correlation structure dynamics in the whole observation period. The analysis reveals an intriguing relationship between average correlation and correlation fluctuations. The strongest fluctuations occur during periods of high average correlation which is the case particularly in times of crisis.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2014

Portfolio return distributions: Sample statistics with non-stationary correlations

We consider random vectors drawn from a multivariate normal distribution and compute the sample statistics in the presence of non-stationary correlations. For this purpose, we construct an ensemble of random correlation matrices and average the normal distribution over this ensemble. The resulting distribution contains a modified Bessel function of the second kind whose behavior differs significantly from the multivariate normal distribution, in the central part as well as in the tails. This result is then applied to asset returns. We compare with empirical return distributions using daily data from the Nasdaq Composite Index in the period from 1992 to 2012. The comparison reveals good agreement, the average portfolio return distribution describes the data well especially in the central part of the distribution. This in turn confirms our ansatz to model the non-stationarity by an ensemble average.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2014

Analysis of a decision model in the context of equilibrium pricing and order book pricing

An agent-based model for financial markets has to incorporate two aspects: decision making and price formation. We introduce a simple decision model and consider its implications in two different pricing schemes. First, we study its parameter dependence within a supply-demand balance setting. We find realistic behavior in a wide parameter range. Second, we embed our decision model in an order book setting. Here we observe interesting features which are not present in the equilibrium pricing scheme. In particular, we find a nontrivial behavior of the order book volumes which reminds of a trend switching phenomenon. Thus, the decision making model alone does not realistically represent the trading and the stylized facts. The order book mechanism is crucial.

q-fin.TR↗

arXiv2013

Credit Risk and the Instability of the Financial System: an Ensemble Approach

The instability of the financial system as experienced in recent years and in previous periods is often linked to credit defaults, i.e., to the failure of obligors to make promised payments. Given the large number of credit contracts, this problem is amenable to be treated with approaches developed in statistical physics. We introduce the idea of ensemble averaging and thereby uncover generic features of credit risk. We then show that the often advertised concept of diversification, i.e., reducing the risk by distributing it, is deeply flawed when it comes to credit risk. The risk of extreme losses remain due to the ever present correlations, implying a substantial and persistent intrinsic danger to the financial system.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2013

Emerging spectra of singular correlation matrices under small power-map deformations

Correlation matrices are a standard tool in the analysis of the time evolution of complex systems in general and financial markets in particular. Yet most analysis assume stationarity of the underlying time series. This tends to be an assumption of varying and often dubious validity. The validity of the assumption improves as shorter time series are used. If many time series are used this implies an analysis of highly singular correlation matrices. We attack this problem by using the so called {\it power map} which was introduced to reduce noise. Its non-linearity breaks the degeneracy of the zero eigenvalues and we analyze the sensitivity of the so emerging spectra to correlations. This sensitivity will be demonstrated for uncorrelated and correlated Wishart ensembles.

math-ph↗