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If we model asset return volatility for periods of more than one (say more than one day) there is the square-root rule which holds true under some assumptions.

On the other hand practitioners sometimes use rolling, overlapping data. Treating them as if they were non-overlapping seems wrong to me (it is wrong) - but how wrong and how can the approach be fixed?

I heard about he following modelling approach: They take a sample of $1000$ daily observations (daily returns/percentage changes) and then they build rolling $180$ day returns. Finally they look at the empirical distribution function (edf) and empirical quantiles of these rolling/overlapping returns.

Mathematically they have $(r_i)_{i=1}^{1000}$ and then they look at $$y_1 = \sum_{i=1}^{180} r_i, \quad y_2 = \sum_{i=2}^{181} r_i, \quad y_3 = \sum_{i=3}^{182} r_i, \cdots $$

The sample of the $(y_i)_{i=1}^{820}$ is a set of strongly dependent random variables. What are the properties of its edf? How does it relate to the edf of the sample of $(r_i)_{i=1}^{1000}$?

As we speak about asset returns we can assume the $(r_i)_{i=1}^{1000}$ to be serially uncorrelated but not independent. This makes a rigorous treatment difficult.

Richard Hardy
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Richi W
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  • Maybe Hansen & Hodrick ["Forward Exchange Rates as Optimal Predictors of Future Spot Rates: An Econometric Analysis"](https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/rhodrick/forwardexchange.pdf) (1980) could be useful. See chapter III and appendix. – Richard Hardy Apr 17 '15 at 13:34
  • Also Harri & Brorsen ["The Overlapping Data Problem"](http://qass.org.uk/2009/Vol_3/paper4.pdf) (2009) and Britten-Jones et al. ["Improved inference in regression with overlapping observations"](http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2935/1/WRAP_Neuberger_overlapping_observations.pdf) (2011) discuss the problem of overlapping observations and suggest solutions. – Richard Hardy Apr 17 '15 at 13:44
  • I will read the references in detail, but they seem to deal with regression mainly... Do you know work about the empirical df in this context? – Richi W Apr 17 '15 at 17:59
  • Sorry, I don't. And the papers indeed are about regression. – Richard Hardy Apr 17 '15 at 18:06
  • What do you mean by wrong? What are you trying to get at? My intuition says the central limit theorem will make the $y$s more normal, but more dependent. – Taylor Apr 22 '15 at 08:29
  • With wrong I mean that the distribution of $\sum_{i=1}^{180} r_i$ with $r_i$ sampled uncorrelated will be different from the distribution of this sample of overlapping data ... – Richi W Apr 22 '15 at 09:05
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    This is a very relevant question that confuses me for a long time as well. Everyone practices this in industry, but it just makes me uncomfortable. – zsljulius Nov 18 '16 at 03:09
  • @zsljulius have you found out anything on the topic above? I searched google and stats SE but it is all about regression in this context. Would it be a solution to regress on a constant and look at the distribution of the error terms? – Richi W Oct 02 '17 at 13:39

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