Some Stylized Facts of Retuns in the Foreign Exchange and Stock Markets in Peru

Some stylized facts for foreign exchange and stock market returns are explored using statistical methods. Formal statistics for testing presence of autocorrelation, asymmetry, and other deviations from normality are applied to these financial returns. Dynamic correlations and different kernel estimations and approximations of the empirical distributions are also under scrutiny. Further- more, dynamic analysis of mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis are also performed to evaluate time-varying properties in return distributions. Main results reveal different sources and types of non-normality in the return distributions in both markets. Left fat tails, excess kurtosis, return clustering and unconditional time-varying moments show important deviations from normality. Identifiable volatility cycles in both forex and stock markets are associated to common macro financial uncertainty events.

Keywords
Foreign Exchange Market Returns, Non-Normal Distributions, Stock Market Returns

JEL Classification

C16, E44, F31, G10, C22, C52, R11