Detecting Log-Periodicity in a Regime-Switching Model of StockReturns
Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Quantitative Finance
Volume
8
Publication Date
2008
First Page
723
Last Page
738
Abstract
Log-periodic precursors have been identified before most and perhaps all financial crashes of the Twentieth Century, but efforts to statistically validate the leading model of log-periodicity, the Johansen–Ledoit–Sornette (JLS) model, have generally failed. The main feature of this model is that log-harmonic fluctuations in financial prices are driven by similar fluctuations in expected daily returns. Here we search more broadly for evidence of any log-periodic variation in expected daily returns by estimating a regime-switching model of stock returns in which the mean return fluctuates between a high and a low value. We find such evidence prior to the two largest drawdowns in the S&P 500 since 1950. However, if we estimate a log-harmonic specification for the stock index for the same time periods, fixing the frequency and critical time according to the results of the regime-switching model, the parameters do not satisfy restrictions imposed by the JLS model.
Recommended Citation
Finance and Econophysics Chang, George and Feigenbaum, James, (2008), “Detecting Log-Periodicity in a Regime-Switching Model of Stock Returns,” Quantitative Finance 8: 723-738.
