Assessing value at risk with CARE, the Conditional Autoregressive Expectile models

In this paper we propose a downside risk measure, the expectile-based Value at Risk (EVaR), which is more sensitive to the magnitude of extreme losses than the conventional quantile-based VaR (QVaR). The index θ of an EVaR is the relative cost of the expected margin shortfall and hence reflects the level of prudentiality. It is also shown that a given expectile corresponds to the quantiles with distinct tail probabilities under different distributions. Thus, an EVaR may be interpreted as a flexible QVaR, in the sense that its tail probability is determined by the underlying distribution. We further consider conditional EVaR and propose various Conditional AutoRegressive Expectile models that can accommodate some stylized facts in financial time series. For model estimation, we employ the method of asymmetric least squares proposed by Newey and Powell [Newey, W.K., Powell, J.L., 1987. Asymmetric least squares estimation and testing. Econometrica 55, 819–847] and extend their asymptotic results to allow for stationary and weakly dependent data. We also derive an encompassing test for non-nested expectile models. As an illustration, we apply the proposed modeling approach to evaluate the EVaR of stock market indices.     

Semi-parametric Bayesian tail risk forecasting incorporating realized measures of volatility

Realized measures employing intra-day sources of data have proven effective for dynamic volatility and tail-risk estimation and forecasting. Expected shortfall (ES) is a tail risk measure, now recommended by the Basel Committee, involving a conditional expectation that can be semi-parametrically estimated via an asymmetric sum of squares function. The conditional autoregressive expectile class of model, used to implicitly model ES, has been extended to allow the intra-day range, not just the daily return, as an input. This model class is here further extended to incorporate information on realized measures of volatility, including realized variance and realized range (RR), as well as scaled and smoothed versions of these. An asymmetric Gaussian density error formulation allows a likelihood that leads to direct estimation and one-step-ahead forecasts of quantiles and expectiles, and subsequently of ES. A Bayesian adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo method is developed and employed for estimation and forecasting. In an empirical study forecasting daily tail risk measures in six financial market return series, over a seven-year period, models employing the RR generate the most accurate tail risk forecasts, compared to models employing other realized measures as well as to a range of well-known competitors.