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Microstructural Foundations of Rough Noise

Peter Korsbakke Christensen, Anders Midtgaard Norlyk

arXiv 31 Jul 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2607.29442 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

Recently, it has been proposed to model the microstructure noise in prices by a continuous-time process with continuous sample paths that are rougher than those of a standard Brownian motion. In this paper, we propose a microstructural model for the tick-by-tick price changes that explicitly separates the permanent price changes from the fleeting price changes due to noise. We show how this model converges to a standard semimartingale model for the permanent price process, plus a rough noise term originating from the fleeting price changes on the macro scale. This provides a microstructural foundation for the rough-noise model. We then develop a GMM estimation method applicable to tick-by-tick data, together with a formal test for rough noise. We show that the estimator and test work in finite samples through a simulation study, and apply them to tick-by-tick data on Dow Jones Industrial Average constituents in 2024. Because our estimator is designed for tick-by-tick data, we estimate roughness at the daily level, revealing substantial day-to-day variation. We find that rough noise, while present, is not universal: even when detected, the roughness index is typically close to zero, and it is most pronounced on days dominated by short-run price reversals.

Citation extraction

38
references
72
in-text mentions
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distinct cited
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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Carsten H. Chong and Thomas Delerue and Guoying Li (2025) When Frictions Are Fractional: Rough Noise in High-Frequency Data1.000125100%
2Aït-Sahalia, Yacine and Yu, Jialin (2009) High frequency market microstructure noise estimates and liquidity measures1.00073100%
3Shephard, Neil and Yang, Justin J (2017) Continuous time analysis of fleeting discrete price moves1.00054100%
4El Euch, Omar and Fukasawa, Masaaki and Rosenbaum, Mathieu (2018) The microstructural foundations of leverage effect and rough volatility0.87452100%
5Barndorff-Nielsen, \Ole Eiler\ and Hansen, \P. Reinhard\ and Asger L… (2009) Realized kernels in practice: trades and quotes0.73732100%
6Andrews, Donald W K (2002) Generalized method of moments estimation when a parameter is on a boundary0.64422100%
7Hasbrouck, J (2007) Empirical Market Microstructure: The Institutions, Economics, and Econometrics of Securities Trading0.64422100%
8Jacod, Jean and Li, Yingying and Zheng, Xinghua (2017) Statistical Properties of Microstructure Noise0.64422100%
9Roll, Richard (1984) A simple implicit measure of the effective bid-ask spread in an efficient market0.64422100%
10Yacine Aït-Sahalia and Per A. Mykland and Lan Zhang (2011) Ultra high frequency volatility estimation with dependent microstructure noise0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 38 scored citations.