Forecasting the Spanish stock market returns with fractional and non-fractional models

Abstract

This note assesses the forecasting accuracy of various models of the Spanish stock market returns. We use daily data on the IBEX 35 for the time period January 4th, 2001 - March 28th, 2006, and employ both fractional and non-fractional models. Prediction errors for the out-of-sample forecasts indicate that the fractional models outperform the non-fractional ones. Standard forecasting criteria suggest that the ARFIMA(1, d, 0) model with d = -0.017 and the AR(1) coefficient equal to 0.068 is the best specification for this series.