Consistency of an Estimator for Change Point in Volatility of Financial Returns

A non parametric Auto-Regressive Conditional Heteroscedastic model for financial returns series is considered in which the conditional mean and volatility functions are estimated non-parametrically using Nadaraya Watson kernel. A test statistic for unknown abrupt change point in volatility which takes into consideration conditional heteroskedasticity, dependence, heterogeneity and the fourth moment of financial returns, since kurtosis is a function of the fourth moment is considered. The test is based on L2norm of the conditional variance functions of the squared residuals. A non-parametric change point estimator in volatility of financial returns is further obtained. The consistency of the estimator is shown theoretically and through simulation. An application of the estimator in change point estimation in volatility of United States Dollar/Kenya Shilling exchange rate returns data set is made. Through binary segmentation procedure, three change points in volatility of the exchange rate returns are estimated and further accounted for.