A Comparative Study on the Forecasting Performance of Range Volatility Estimators using KOSPI 200 Tick Data

This study is on the forecasting performance analysis of range volatility estimators(Parkinson, Garman and Klass, and Rogers and Satchell) relative to historical one using two-scale realized volatility estimator as a benchmark. American sub-prime mortgage loan shock to Korean stock markets happened in sample period(January 2, 2006～March 10, 2008), so the structural change somewhere within this period can make a huge influence on the results. Therefore sample was divided into two sub-samples by May 30, 2007 according to Zivot and Andrews unit root test results. As expected, the second sub-sample was much more volatile than the first sub-sample. As a result of forecasting performance analysis, Rogers and Satchell volatility estimator showed the best forecasting performance in the full sample and relatively better forecasting performance than other estimators in sub-samples. Range volatility estimators showed better forecasting performance than historical volatility estimator during the period before the outbreak of structural change(the first sub-sample). On the contrary, the forecasting performance of range volatility estimators couldn’t beat that of historical volatility estimator during the period after this event(the second sub-sample). The main culprit of this result seems to be the increment of range volatility caused by that of intraday volatility after structural change.