Giovanni Bonanno

Topology of correlation-based minimal spanning trees in real and model markets.

We compare the topological properties of the minimal spanning tree obtained from a large group of stocks traded at the New York Stock Exchange during a 12-year trading period with the one obtained from surrogated data simulated by using simple market models. We find that the empirical tree has features of a complex network that cannot be reproduced, even as a first approximation, by a random market model and by the widespread one-factor model.

Networks of equities in financial markets

Abstract.We review the recent approach of correlation based networks of financial equities. We investigate portfolio of stocks at different time horizons, financial indices and volatility time series and we show that meaningful economic information can be extracted from noise dressed correlation matrices. We show that the method can be used to falsify widespread market models by directly comparing the topological properties of networks of real and artificial markets.

High-frequency cross-correlation in a set of stocks

The high-frequency cross-correlation existing between pairs of stocks traded in a financial market are investigated in a set of 100 stocks traded in US equity markets. A hierarchical organization of the investigated stocks is obtained by determining a metric distance between stocks and by investigating the properties of the subdominant ultrametric associated with it. A clear modification of the hierarchical organization of the set of stocks investigated is detected when the time horizon used to determine stock returns is changed. The hierarchical location of stocks of the energy sector is investigated as a function of the time horizon.

Taxonomy of Stock Market Indices

We investigate sets of financial nonredundant and nonsynchronously recorded time series. The sets are composed by a number of stock market indices located all over the world in five continents. By properly selecting the time horizon of returns and by using a reference currency we find a meaningful taxonomy. The detection of such a taxonomy proves that interpretable information can be stored in a set of nonsynchronously recorded time series.

Degree stability of a minimum spanning tree of price return and volatility

We investigate the time series of the degree of minimum spanning trees (MSTs) obtained by using a correlation-based clustering procedure which starts from (i) asset return and (ii) volatility time series. The MST is obtained at different times by computing correlation among time series over a time window of fixed length T. We find that the MST of asset return is characterized by stock degree values, which are more stable in time than the ones obtained by analyzing a MST computed starting from volatility time series. Our analysis also shows that the degree of stocks has a very slow dynamics with a time scale of several years in both cases.

Levels of complexity in financial markets

We consider different levels of complexity which are observed in the empirical investigation of financial time series. We discuss recent empirical and theoretical work showing that statistical properties of financial time series are rather complex under several ways. Specifically, they are complex with respect to their (i) temporal and (ii) ensemble properties. Moreover, the ensemble return properties show a behavior which is specific to the nature of the trading day reflecting if it is a normal or an extreme trading day.

Volatility in financial markets: stochastic models and empirical results

We investigate the historical volatility of the 100 most capitalized stocks traded in US equity markets. An empirical probability density function (pdf) of volatility is obtained and compared with the theoretical predictions of a lognormal model and of the Hull and White model. The lognormal model well describes the pdf in the region of low values of volatility whereas the Hull and White model better approximates the empirical pdf for large values of volatility. Both models fails in describing the empirical pdf over a moderately large volatility range.

Mean Escape Time in a System with Stochastic Volatility

We study the mean escape time in a market model with stochastic volatility. The process followed by the volatility is the Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross process which is widely used to model stock price fluctuations. The market model can be considered as a generalization of the Heston model, where the geometric Brownian motion is replaced by a random walk in the presence of a cubic nonlinearity. We investigate the statistical properties of the escape time of the returns, from a given interval, as a function of the three parameters of the model. We find that the noise can have a stabilizing effect on the system, as long as the global noise is not too high with respect to the effective potential barrier experienced by a fictitious Brownian particle. We compare the probability density function of the return escape times of the model with those obtained from real market data. We find that they fit very well.

Hitting time distributions in financial markets

We analyze the hitting time distributions of stock price returns in different time windows, characterized by different levels of noise present in the market. The study has been performed on two sets of data from US markets. The first one is composed by daily price of 1071 stocks trade for the 12-year period 1987–1998, the second one is composed by high frequency data for 100 stocks for the 4-year period 1995–1998. We compare the probability distribution obtained by our empirical analysis with those obtained from different models for stock market evolution. Specifically by focusing on the statistical properties of the hitting times to reach a barrier or a given threshold, we compare the probability density function (PDF) of three models, namely the geometric Brownian motion, the GARCH model and the Heston model with that obtained from real market data. We will present also some results of a generalized Heston model.

Role of noise in a market model with stochastic volatility

Abstract.We study a generalization of the Heston model, which consists of two coupled stochastic differential equations, one for the stock price and the other one for the volatility. We consider a cubic nonlinearity in the first equation and a correlation between the two Wiener processes, which model the two white noise sources. This model can be useful to describe the market dynamics characterized by different regimes corresponding to normal and extreme days. We analyze the effect of the noise on the statistical properties of the escape time with reference to the noise enhanced stability (NES) phenomenon, that is the noise induced enhancement of the lifetime of a metastable state. We observe NES effect in our model with stochastic volatility. We investigate the role of the correlation between the two noise sources on the NES effect.