Rough Volatility

From rough to multifractal multidimensional volatility: A multidimensional Log S-fBM model ArXiv ID: 2601.10517 “View on arXiv” Authors: Othmane Zarhali, Emmanuel Bacry, Jean-François Muzy Abstract We introduce the multivariate Log S-fBM model (mLog S-fBM), extending the univariate framework proposed by Wu \textit{“et al.”} to the multidimensional setting. We define the multidimensional Stationary fractional Brownian motion (mS-fBM), characterized by marginals following S-fBM dynamics and a specific cross-covariance structure. It is parametrized by a correlation scale $T$, marginal-specific intermittency parameters and Hurst exponents, as well as their multidimensional counterparts: the co-intermittency matrix and the co-Hurst matrix. The mLog S-fBM is constructed by modeling volatility components as exponentials of the mS-fBM, preserving the dependence structure of the Gaussian core. We demonstrate that the model is well-defined for any co-Hurst matrix with entries in $[“0, \frac{“1”}{“2”}[$, supporting vanishing co-Hurst parameters to bridge rough volatility and multifractal regimes. We generalize the small intermittency approximation technique to the multivariate setting to develop an efficient Generalized Method of Moments calibration procedure, estimating cross-covariance parameters for pairs of marginals. We validate it on synthetic data and apply it to S&P 500 market data, modeling stock return fluctuations. Diagonal estimates of the stock Hurst matrix, corresponding to single-stock log-volatility Hurst exponents, are close to 0, indicating multifractal behavior, while co-Hurst off-diagonal entries are close to the Hurst exponent of the S&P 500 index ($H \approx 0.12$), and co-intermittency off-diagonal entries align with univariate intermittency estimates. ...

Multifractality and sample size influence on Bitcoin volatility patterns ArXiv ID: 2511.03314 “View on arXiv” Authors: Tetsuya Takaishi Abstract The finite sample effect on the Hurst exponent (HE) of realized volatility time series is examined using Bitcoin data. This study finds that the HE decreases as the sampling period $Δ$ increases and a simple finite sample ansatz closely fits the HE data. We obtain values of the HE as $Δ\rightarrow 0$, which are smaller than 1/2, indicating rough volatility. The relative error is found to be $1%$ for the widely used five-minute realized volatility. Performing a multifractal analysis, we find the multifractality in the realized volatility time series, smaller than that of the price-return time series. ...

An Efficient Calibration Framework for Volatility Derivatives under Rough Volatility with Jumps ArXiv ID: 2510.19126 “View on arXiv” Authors: Keyuan Wu, Tenghan Zhong, Yuxuan Ouyang Abstract We present a fast and robust calibration method for stochastic volatility models that admit Fourier-analytic transform-based pricing via characteristic functions. The design is structure-preserving: we keep the original pricing transform and (i) split the pricing formula into data-independent inte- grals and a market-dependent remainder; (ii) precompute those data-independent integrals with GPU acceleration; and (iii) approximate only the remaining, market-dependent pricing map with a small neural network. We instantiate the workflow on a rough volatility model with tempered-stable jumps tailored to power-type volatility derivatives and calibrate it to VIX options with a global-to-local search. We verify that a pure-jump rough volatility model adequately captures the VIX dynamics, consistent with prior empirical findings, and demonstrate that our calibration method achieves high accuracy and speed. ...

Roughness Analysis of Realized Volatility and VIX through Randomized Kolmogorov-Smirnov Distribution ArXiv ID: 2509.20015 “View on arXiv” Authors: Sergio Bianchi, Daniele Angelini Abstract We introduce a novel distribution-based estimator for the Hurst parameter of log-volatility, leveraging the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic to assess the scaling behavior of entire distributions rather than individual moments. To address the temporal dependence of financial volatility, we propose a random permutation procedure that effectively removes serial correlation while preserving marginal distributions, enabling the rigorous application of the KS framework to dependent data. We establish the asymptotic variance of the estimator, useful for inference and confidence interval construction. From a computational standpoint, we show that derivative-free optimization methods, particularly Brent’s method and the Nelder-Mead simplex, achieve substantial efficiency gains relative to grid search while maintaining estimation accuracy. Empirical analysis of the CBOE VIX index and the 5-minute realized volatility of the S&P 500 reveals a statistically significant hierarchy of roughness, with implied volatility smoother than realized volatility. Both measures, however, exhibit Hurst exponents well below one-half, reinforcing the rough volatility paradigm and highlighting the open challenge of disentangling local roughness from long-memory effects in fractional modeling. ...

Asymmetric super-Heston-rough volatility model with Zumbach effect as scaling limit of quadratic Hawkes processes ArXiv ID: 2508.16566 “View on arXiv” Authors: Priyanka Chudasama, Srikanth Krishnan Iyer Abstract Hawkes processes were first introduced to obtain microscopic models for the rough volatility observed in asset prices. Scaling limits of such processes leads to the rough-Heston model that describes the macroscopic behavior. Blanc et al. (2017) show that Time-reversal asymmetry (TRA) or the Zumbach effect can be modeled using Quadratic Hawkes (QHawkes) processes. Dandapani et al. (2021) obtain a super-rough-Heston model as scaling limit of QHawkes processes in the case where the impact of buying and selling actions are symmetric. To model asymmetry in buying and selling actions, we propose a bivariate QHawkes process and derive a super-rough-Heston model as scaling limits for the price process in the stable and near-unstable regimes that preserves TRA. A new feature of the limiting process in the near-unstable regime is that the two driving Brownian motions exhibit a stochastic covariation that depends on the spot volatility. ...

American Option Pricing Under Time-Varying Rough Volatility: A Signature-Based Hybrid Framework ArXiv ID: 2508.07151 “View on arXiv” Authors: Roshan Shah Abstract We introduce a modular framework that extends the signature method to handle American option pricing under evolving volatility roughness. Building on the signature-pricing framework of Bayer et al. (2025), we add three practical innovations. First, we train a gradient-boosted ensemble to estimate the time-varying Hurst parameter H(t) from rolling windows of recent volatility data. Second, we feed these forecasts into a regime switch that chooses either a rough Bergomi or a calibrated Heston simulator, depending on the predicted roughness. Third, we accelerate signature-kernel evaluations with Random Fourier Features (RFF), cutting computational cost while preserving accuracy. Empirical tests on S&P 500 equity-index options reveal that the assumption of persistent roughness is frequently violated, particularly during stable market regimes when H(t) approaches or exceeds 0.5. The proposed hybrid framework provides a flexible structure that adapts to changing volatility roughness, improving performance over fixed-roughness baselines and reducing duality gaps in some regimes. By integrating a dynamic Hurst parameter estimation pipeline with efficient kernel approximations, we propose to enable tractable, real-time pricing of American options in dynamic volatility environments. ...

Prediction of linear fractional stable motions using codifference, with application to non-Gaussian rough volatility ArXiv ID: 2507.15437 “View on arXiv” Authors: Matthieu Garcin, Karl Sawaya, Thomas Valade Abstract The linear fractional stable motion (LFSM) extends the fractional Brownian motion (fBm) by considering $α$-stable increments. We propose a method to forecast future increments of the LFSM from past discrete-time observations, using the conditional expectation when $α>1$ or a semimetric projection otherwise. It relies on the codifference, which describes the serial dependence of the process, instead of the covariance. Indeed, covariance is commonly used for predicting an fBm but it is infinite when $α<2$. Some theoretical properties of the method and of its accuracy are studied and both a simulation study and an application to real data confirm the relevance of the approach. The LFSM-based method outperforms the fBm, when forecasting high-frequency FX rates. It also shows a promising performance in the forecast of time series of volatilities, decomposing properly, in the fractal dynamic of rough volatilities, the contribution of the kurtosis of the increments and the contribution of their serial dependence. Moreover, the analysis of hit ratios suggests that, beside independence, persistence, and antipersistence, a fourth regime of serial dependence exists for fractional processes, characterized by a selective memory controlled by a few large increments. ...

Multifractality in Bitcoin Realised Volatility: Implications for Rough Volatility Modelling ArXiv ID: 2507.00575 “View on arXiv” Authors: Milan Pontiggia Abstract We assess the applicability of rough volatility models to Bitcoin realized volatility using the normalised p-variation framework of Cont and Das (2024). Applying this model-free estimator to high-frequency Bitcoin data from 2017 to 2024 across multiple sampling resolutions, we find that the normalised statistic remains strictly negative, precluding the estimation of a valid roughness index. Stationarity tests and robustness checks reveal no significant evidence of non-stationarity or structural breaks as explanatory factors. Instead, convergent evidence from three complementary diagnostics, namely Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, log-log moment scaling, and wavelet leaders, reveals a multifractal structure in Bitcoin volatility. This behaviour violates the homogeneity assumptions underlying rough volatility estimation and accounts for the estimator’s systematic failure. These findings suggest that while rough volatility models perform well in traditional markets, they are structurally misaligned with the empirical features of Bitcoin volatility. ...

Why is the volatility of single stocks so much rougher than that of the S&P500? ArXiv ID: 2505.02678 “View on arXiv” Authors: Othmane Zarhali, Cecilia Aubrun, Emmanuel Bacry, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, Jean-François Muzy Abstract The Nested factor model was introduced by Chicheportiche et al. to represent non-linear correlations between stocks. Stock returns are explained by a standard factor model, but the (log)-volatilities of factors and residuals are themselves decomposed into factor modes, with a common dominant volatility mode affecting both market and sector factors but also residuals. Here, we consider the case of a single factor where the only dominant log-volatility mode is rough, with a Hurst exponent $H \simeq 0.11$ and the log-volatility residuals are ‘‘super-rough’’ or ‘‘multifractal’’, with $H \simeq 0$. We demonstrate that such a construction naturally accounts for the somewhat surprising stylized fact reported by Wu et al. , where it has been observed that the Hurst exponents of stock indexes are large compared to those of individual stocks. We propose a statistical procedure to estimate the Hurst factor exponent from the stock returns dynamics together with theoretical guarantees of its consistency. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through numerical experiments and apply it to daily stock data from the S&P500 index. The estimated roughness exponents for both the factor and idiosyncratic components validate the assumptions underlying our model. ...

Multivariate Rough Volatility ArXiv ID: 2412.14353 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract Motivated by empirical evidence from the joint behavior of realized volatility time series, we propose to model the joint dynamics of log-volatilities using a multivariate fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. This model is a multivariate version of the Rough Fractional Stochastic Volatility model proposed in Gatheral, Jaisson, and Rosenbaum, Quant. Finance, 2018. It allows for different Hurst exponents in the different marginal components and non trivial interdependencies. We discuss the main features of the model and propose a Generalised Method of Moments estimator that jointly identifies its parameters. We derive the asymptotic theory of the estimator and perform a simulation study that confirms the asymptotic theory in finite sample. We carry out an extensive empirical investigation on all realized volatility time series covering the entire span of about two decades in the Oxford-Man realized library. Our analysis shows that these time series are strongly correlated and can exhibit asymmetries in their empirical cross-covariance function, accurately captured by our model. These asymmetries lead to spillover effects, which we derive analytically within our model and compute based on empirical estimates of model parameters. Moreover, in accordance with the existing literature, we observe behaviors close to non-stationarity and rough trajectories. ...