Abstract: in the prediction of quantiles of daily Standard&Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) returns we
consider how to use high-frequency 5-minute data. We examine methods that incorporate the
high frequency information either indirectly, through combining forecasts (using forecasts
generated from returns sampled at different intraday interval), or directly, through combining
high frequency information into one model. We consider subsample averaging, bootstrap
averaging, forecast averaging methods for the indirect case, and factor models with principal
component approach, for both direct and indirect cases. We show that in forecasting
the daily S&P 500 index return quantile (Value-at-Risk or VaR is simply the negative
of it), using high-frequency information is beneficial, often substantially and particularly
so, in forecasting downside risk. Our empirical results show that the averaging methods
(subsample averaging, bootstrap averaging, forecast averaging), which serve as different
ways of forming the ensemble average from using high-frequency intraday information,
provide an excellent forecasting performance compared to using just low-frequency daily
information.