Issue |
EPL
Volume 100, Number 3, November 2012
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 38005 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/100/38005 | |
Published online | 21 November 2012 |
Microscopic understanding of heavy-tailed return distributions in an agent-based model
Faculty of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen - Lotharstrasse 1, 47048 Duisburg, Germany, EU
Received: 19 July 2012
Accepted: 24 October 2012
The distribution of returns in financial time series exhibits heavy tails. It has been found that gaps between the orders in the order book lead to large price shifts and thereby to these heavy tails. We set up an agent-based model to study this issue and, in particular, how the gaps in the order book emerge. The trading mechanism in our model is based on a double-auction order book. In situations where the order book is densely occupied with limit orders we do not observe fat-tailed distributions. As soon as less liquidity is available, a gap structure forms which leads to return distributions with heavy tails. We show that return distributions with heavy tails are an order-book effect if the available liquidity is constrained. This is largely independent of specific trading strategies.
PACS: 89.65.Gh – Economics; econophysics, financial markets, business and management
© EPLA, 2012
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