Turbulence and financial markets

Econophysics: Scaling and its breakdown in finance

We discuss recent empirical results obtained by analyzing high-frequency data of a stock market index, the Standard and Poor’s 500. We focus on the scaling properties and on its breakdown of the index dynamics. A simple stochastic model, the truncated Levy flight, is illustrated. Successes and limitations of this model are presented. A discussion about similarities and differences between the scaling properties observed in financial markets and in fully developed turbulence is also provided.

Emergence of Statistically Validated Financial Intraday Lead-Lag Relationships

According to the leading models in modern finance, the presence of intraday lead-lag relationships between financial assets is negligible in efficient markets. With the advance of technology, however, markets have become more sophisticated. To determine whether this has resulted in an improved market efficiency, we investigate whether statistically significant lagged correlation relationships exist in financial markets. We introduce a numerical method to statistically validate links in correlation-based networks, and employ our method to study lagged correlation networks of equity returns in financial markets. Crucially, our statistical validation of lead-lag relationships accounts for mult…

Emergence of statistically validated financial intraday lead-lag relationships

According to the leading models in modern finance, the presence of intraday lead-lag relationships between financial assets is negligible in efficient markets. With the advance of technology, however, markets have become more sophisticated. To determine whether this has resulted in an improved market efficiency, we investigate whether statistically significant lagged correlation relationships exist in financial markets. We introduce a numerical method to statistically validate links in correlation-based networks, and employ our method to study lagged correlation networks of equity returns in financial markets. Crucially, our statistical validation of lead-lag relationships accounts for mult…

How Lead-Lag Correlations Affect the Intraday Pattern of Collective Stock Dynamics

The degree of correlation among stock returns aects the possibility to diversify the risk of investment,

Stock market dynamics and turbulence: parallel analysis of fluctuation phenomena

Abstract We report analogies and differences between the fluctuations in an economic index and the fluctuations in velocity of a fluid in a fully turbulent state. Specifically, we systematically compare (i) the statistical properties of the S&P 500 cash index recorded during the period January 84–December 89 with (ii) the statistical properties of the velocity of turbulent air measured in the atmospheric surface layer about 6 m above a wheat canopy in the Connecticut Agricultural Research Station. We find non-Gaussian statistics, and intermittency, for both processes (i) and (ii) but the deviation from a Gaussian probability density function are different for stock market dynamics and turbu…

Trend Switching Processes in Financial Markets

For an intriguing variety of switching processes in nature, the underlying complex system abruptly changes at a specific point from one state to another in a highly discontinuous fashion. Financial market fluctuations are characterized by many abrupt switchings creating increasing trends (“bubble formation”) and decreasing trends (“bubble collapse”), on time scales ranging from macroscopic bubbles persisting for hundreds of days to microscopic bubbles persisting only for very short time scales. Our analysis is based on a German DAX Future data base containing 13,991,275 transactions recorded with a time resolution of 10− 2 s. For a parallel analysis, we use a data base of all S&P500 stocks …

Applications of statistical mechanics to finance

Abstract We discuss some apparently “universal” aspects observed in the empirical analysis of stock price dynamics in financial markets. Specifically we consider (i) the empirical behavior of the return probability density function and (ii) the content of economic information in financial time series.

Limit theorems and price changes in financial markets

Abstract We discuss the relation between limit theorems in probability theory and price change statistics in financial markets. An analysis of the published empirical results and theoretical models show that the problem of the statistical properties of price (or index) changes is still open. By using the limit theorems of probability theory and the current assumption that stock prices are well described by martingales, we point out that the probability density function (PDF) of price changes is expected to belong to theclass of infinitely divisible PDFs.

Complex dynamics of our economic life on different scales: insights from search engine query data.

Search engine query data deliver insight into the behaviour of individuals who are the smallest possible scale of our economic life. Individuals are submitting several hundred million search engine queries around the world each day. We study weekly search volume data for various search terms from 2004 to 2010 that are offered by the search engine Google for scientific use, providing information about our economic life on an aggregated collective level. We ask the question whether there is a link between search volume data and financial market fluctuations on a weekly time scale. Both collective ‘swarm intelligence’ of Internet users and the group of financial market participants can be rega…