Empirical distributions of Chinese stock returns at different microscopic timescales

Gu, Gao-Feng; Chen, Wei; Zhou, Wei-Xing

Empirical distributions of Chinese stock returns at different microscopic timescales

Authors

Gu, Gao-Feng

Chen, Wei

Zhou, Wei-Xing

Description

We study the distributions of event-time returns and clock-time returns at different microscopic timescales using ultra-high-frequency data extracted from the limit-order books of 23 stocks traded in the Chinese stock market in 2003. We find that the returns at the one-trade timescale obey the inverse cubic law. For larger timescales (2-32 trades and 1-5 minutes), the returns follow the Student distribution with power-law tails. With the decrease of timescale, the tail becomes fatter, which is consistent with the vibrational theory.
14 Elsart page including 2 tables and 3 figures