Abstract
We study the rate at which the difference $X^n_t=X_t-X_{[nt]/n}$ between a process $X$ and its time-discretization converges. When $X$ is a continuous semimartingale it is known that, under appropriate assumptions, the rate is $\sqrt{n}$, so we focus here on the discontinuous case. Then $\alpha_nX^n$ explodes for any sequence $\alpha_n$ going to infinity, so we consider "integrated errors'' of the form $Y^n_t=\int_0^tX^n_s\,ds$ or $Z^{n,p}_t=\int_0^t|X^n_s|^p\,ds$ for $p\in(0,\infty)$: we essentially prove that the variables $\sup_{s\leq t}|nY^n_s|$ and $\sup_{s\leq t}nZ^{n,p}_s$ are tight for any finite $t$ when $X$ is an arbitrary semimartingale, provided either $p\geq2$ or\break $p\in(0,2)$ and $X$ has no continuous martingale part and the sum $\sum_{s\leq t}|\Delta X_s|^p$ converges a.s. for all $t<\infty$, and in addition $X$ is the sum of its jumps when $p<1$. Under suitable additional assumptions, we even prove that the discretized processes $nY^n_{[nt]/n}$ and $nZ^{n,p}_{[nt]/n}$\vadjust{\vspace{1pt}} converge in law to nontrivial processes which are explicitly given.
As a by-product, we also obtain a generalization of Itö's formula for functions that are not twice continuously differentiable and which may be of interest by itself.
Citation
J. Jacod. A. Jakubowski. J. Mémin. "On asymptotic errors in discretization of processes." Ann. Probab. 31 (2) 592 - 608, April 2003. https://doi.org/10.1214/aop/1048516529
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