A local level model has a deterministic level when the signal-to-noise ratio q is zero. In this paper we investigate the properties of the maximum likelihood estimator of q, paying particular attention to the case where its true value is zero. These properties are shown to be crucially dependent...

Limit distribution results on realized power variation, that is, sums of absolute powers of increments of a process, are derived for certain types of semimartingale with continuous local martingale component, in particular for a class of flexible stochastic volatility models. The theory covers,...